Real Live Roadrunning

Miles between us here we are
side by side in a stranded car
Right now, baby right now
And it’s too dark to see
Anyhow so where are we
Right now, baby, right now
You could say we’ve both come down
To a place called lonesome town
When did you lose a hold on me
Anyhow and where are we
Right now, oh baby right now

We stood up and said ‘I do’
Vowed to see each other through
Right now, baby right now
I’m looking down this road tonight
And I don’t see a light
Right now, baby right now
If we’re so clever tell me how
Were waiting for the wrecker now
Let’s forget what used to be
Anyhow and where are we
Right now, oh baby right now

Miles between us here we are
side by side in a stranded car
Right now, baby right now
And it’s too dark to see
Anyhow so where are we
Right now, baby, right now

If I was staggerwing plane
A staggerwing painted red
I’d fly over to your house, baby
Buzz you in your bed
If I was a taperwing
A taperwing painted blue
I’d be barrell-rolling over you
You’re gonna need a rider anyhow
Let me be your rider now

If I was a maserati
A red 300s
I’d ride around to your house, baby
Give you a driving test
If I was a mustang racer
White with a stripe of blue
You could ride me, baby
Whenever you wanted to
You’re gonna need a rider anyhow
Let me be your rider now

If I was a fender guitar
A fender painted red
You could play me, darlin’
Until your fingers bled
If I was one of them Gibsons
Like a ’58 or ‘9
You could plug me in
And play me anytime
You’re gonna need a rider anyhow
Let me be your rider now

If I was a motorcycle
A vincent red rapide
I’d ride around to your house, baby
Get you up to speed
If I was short track racer
I’d be an Indian
You could ride me around
And ride me round again
You’re gonna need a rider anyhow
Let me be your rider now

You’re gonna need a rider anyhow
Let me be your rider now

Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin every song the radio played
Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a ’49 Indian
He told her ‘Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again”
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he’s lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there’s not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
Thats where I’m bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I’m gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I’m gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don’t tell you about the blues
When you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain’t no bottom
There ain’t know end.
At least not for Lillian

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and she had five kids.
Coulda’ been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won’t be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Names Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground

We’ve paid in hell since Moscow burned
As Cossacks tear us piece by piece
Our dead are strewn a hundred leagues
Though death would be a sweet release

And our Grande Armée is dressed in rags
A frozen starving beggar band
Like rats we steal each other’s scraps
Fall to fighting hand to hand

Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier’s heart
I’ll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I’m done with Bonaparte

What dreams he made for us to dream
Spanish skies, Egyptian sands
The world was ours, we marched upon
Our little Corporal’s command

And I lost an eye at Austerlitz
The sabre slash yet gives me pain
My one true love awaits me still
The flower of the Aquitaine

Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier’s heart
I’ll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I’m done with Bonaparte

I pray for her who prays for me
A safe return to my belle France
We prayed these wars would end all wars
In war we know is no romance

And I pray our child will never see
A little Corporal again
Point toward a foreign shore
Captivate the hearts of men

Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier’s heart
I’ll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I’m done with Bonaparte

CREDITS
Mark Knopfler: guitars
Donal Lunny: bouzouki
Liam O’Flynn: Uillean pipes
Paul Brady: whistle
Sean Keane: violin
Máirtin O’Connor: accordion
Paul Moore: bass
Robbie Casserley: drums

A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Juliet says hey it’s Romeo you nearly gimme a heart attack
He’s underneath the window she’s singing hey la my boyfriend’s back
You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway what you gonna do about it?

Juliet the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded in my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

Come up on different streets they both were streets of shame
Both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

When you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything you promised me thick and thin yeah
Now you just say oh Romeo yeah you know I used to have a scene with him

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
There’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

I can’t do the talk like they talk on TV
And I can’t do a love song like the way it’s meant to be
I can’t do everything but I’d do anything for you
I can’t do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat and bad company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Julie I’d do the stars with you any time

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
And there’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

And a lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

My darling girl
My darling girl
You’re all that matters
In this wicked world
All that matters
All that matters

My darling boy
My darling boy
All of my sunshine
And all of my joy
You’re all that matters
All that matters

Well, I can’t stop the pain
When it calls I’m a man
And I can’t stop the rain
When it falls, my darling
Who can?

My darling girl
My darling girl
You’re all that matters
In this wicked world
All that matters
All that matters

My darling friend
My darling friend
All we’ve got going
Is love in the end
It’s all that matters
All that matters

This is us down at the Mardi Gras
This is us in your Daddy’s car
You and the missing link
Yeah, I’d had a little too much to drink,now
Too long in the sun
Having too much fun
You and me and our memories
This is us

Rocking at the barbecue
Yeah, when we said I do
Hand jiving on the ballroom floor
You in that wedding coat you wore
And you in that amazing dress
I was stoned on love I guess
You and me we were meant to be
This is us

This is us on our Honeymoon
In our hotel room
Sitting by the wishing well
Checking out of the love motel
Making plans for the sunshine state
Waiting at the terminal gate
You and me making history
This is us

And our baby boy
With our pride and joy
You at the Sunday Game
Standing next to Whatshisname?
On our Anniversary
With the family
You and me and our memories
This is us

A million miles our vagabond wheels
Clocked up beneath the clouds
They’re counting down to show time
When we do it for real with the crowds
Air miles are owing but they don’t come for free
And they don’t give you any for pain
But if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

The rim shots come down like cannon fire
And thunder off the wall
There’s a man in every corner
And each one is giving his all
But this is my piper and this is my drum
So you never will hear me complain
And if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning

Well if you’re inclined to go up on the wall
It can only be fast and high
And those who don’t like the danger soon
Find something different to try
And when there is only a ring in your ears
And an echo down memory lane
Then if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning

The show’s packing up, I sit and watch
The carnival leaving town
And there’s no pretending that I’m not a fool
For riding around and around
Like the pictures you keep of your old wall of death
You showed me one time on a plane
But if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

I’ve a million miles of vagabond sky
Clocked up above the clouds
I’m still your man for the roaming
For as long as there’s roaming allowed
There’ll be a rider and there’ll be a wall
As long as the dreamer remains
And if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning

I don’t want to hear a love song
I got on this airplane just to fly
And I know there’s life below
But all that it can show me
Is the prairie and the sky

And I don’t want to hear a sad story
Full of heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I’ll survive.
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it’s the ocean
coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean
Baby do you know what I mean

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

After two thousand came two thousand and one
To be the new champions we were there for to run
From springtime in Arizona ’til the fall in Monterey
And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought ’em all the way

Was at Phoenix in the morning I had a wake-up call
She went around without a warning put me in the wall
I drove Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae
And we went on to Indianapolis, Indiana in May

Well the Brickyard’s there to crucify anyone who will not learn
I climbed the mountain to qualify went flat through the turns
But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died
And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried

Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile
And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle
Then it was on to Portland, Oregon for the G.I. Joe
And I’d blown off almost everyone when my motor let go

New England, Ontario we died in the dirt
Those walls from mid-Ohio to Toronto they hurt
So we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake
But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake

Here I am again in this mean old town
And you’re so far away from me
And where are you when the sun goes down
You’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

I’m tired of being in love and being all alone
When you’re so far away from me
I’m tired of making out on the telephone
And you’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

I get so tired when I have to explain
When you’re so far away from me
See you’ve been in the sun and I’ve been in the rain
And you’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

It’s the end of a perfect day
For surfer boys and girls
The sun’s dropping down in the bay
And falling off the world

There’s a diamond in the sky,
Our evening star
In our Shangri-La

Get that fire burning strong
Right here and right now
It’s here and then it’s gone
There’s no secret, anyhow.

We may never love again
To the music of guitars
In our Shangri-La

Tonight your beauty burns
Into my memory
The wheel of heaven turns
Above us endlessly

This is all the heaven we’ve got
Right here where we are
In our Shangri-La

Tonight your beauty burns
Into my memory
The wheel of heaven turns
Above us endlessly

This is all the heaven we’ve got
Right here where we are
In our Shangri-La

In our Shangri-La
In our Shangri-La

My famous last words
Are laying around in tatters
Sounding absurd
Whatever I try
But I love you
And that’s all that really matters
If this is good bye
If this is good bye

Your bright shining sun
Would light up the way before me
You were the one
Made me feel I could fly
And I love you
Whatever is waiting for me
If this is good bye
If this is good bye

Who knows how long we’ve got
Or what were made out of
Who knows if there’s a plan or not
There is our love
I know there is our love

My famous last words
Could never tell the story
Spinning unheard
In the dark of the sky
But I love you
And this is our glory
If this is good bye
If this is good bye

Baby I see this world has made you sad
Some people can be bad
The things they do, the things they say
But baby I’ll wipe away those bitter tears
I’ll chase away those restless fears
That turn your blue skies into grey

Why worry, there should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now

Baby when I get down I turn to you
And you make sense of what I do
I know it isn’t hard to say
But baby just when this world seems mean and cold
Our love comes shining red and gold
And all the rest is by the way

Why worry, there should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now