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[00:39.86]There's a high wind blowin, & the stars are shining bright,
[00:47.16]Oh what a night, this is gonna be--
[00:49.83]I think I'll let the world sleep without me.
[00:52.54]I got one eye open, one eye closed.
[00:56.14]& My thin body's trembling beneath the bedclothes,
[00:59.72]My hearts beatin' against the roof of my mouth
[01:02.47]--It's almost time to get out of this house.
[01:11.58]I got one hand on the radio, one hand on the wheel,
[01:17.81]I got my right foot on the floorboard,--
[01:20.55]& I'm preparing to kill or be killed.
[01:24.10]There's a high wind blowin', & the stars are shining bright.
[01:30.57]& The rain upon the tarmac,
[01:34.16]--helps me sail through the traffic lights,
[01:36.87]I'm heading down to the dock of the bay,
[01:40.47]--to feel the power of the waves,
[01:43.13]I'm gonna move up close to that wind,
[01:46.80]& Wrestle with the thoughts solitude always brings.
[02:03.03]Y'see I'm stuck between hell & the deep blue sea,
[02:05.70]& I know that water's sucked under better man than me,
[02:09.42]I was just another western guy,
[02:12.13]--with desires that couldn't be satisfied,
[02:15.74]So one day, I asked the angels for inspiration,
[02:18.44]--but the devil bought me a drink,
[02:24.71]& He's been buying them ever since,
[02:41.06]He's had the liquor on my tongue
[02:43.78]--feel like the sea upon the sand,
[02:47.36]He's had me signing confessions
[02:50.19]--from this shaking hand,
[02:53.77]He's had me struggling to hang onto hope--
[02:56.45]Like a drunken sailor in a tugboat
[03:00.08]With a bottle of vodka in my overcoat,
[03:02.74]& My dog eared bible lost--overboard
[03:19.02]Y'see he tricked me into temptation,
[03:21.72]So I've tricked him into this confrontation,
[03:25.48]I never said I was the man I appeared to be
[03:28.17]Not the flesh wrapped around the bones of necessity.
[03:31.74]Or the soul on fire--scribbling thoughts for posterity.
[03:38.06]I'm gonna have little lucifer, runnin' off to purgatory,
[03:41.65]--with his tail between his legs,
[03:44.34]I'm gonna teach him a lesson
[03:47.10]--he ain't ever gonna forget.
[03:50.76]All the vultures & crows are fixin up some tombstones
[03:53.41]But they won't be chewing the meat off my bones.
[03:57.07]There's a high wind blowin' & the stars are shining bright.
[04:02.53]Me & him are gonna have a little knife fight,
[04:07.08]--in the bowels of the big city skyline,
[04:09.71]Oh this feelin' inside runs dark & deep
[04:13.34]--Tonight my hearts not thumping
[04:15.12]--A Mercy Beat
[04:41.31]I was just another western guy,
[04:45.06]With desires that couldn't be--satisfied.
[04:57.66]🎵