Keeping The Faith This song is from An Innocent Man. If it seems like I've been lost In let's remember If you think I'm feeling older And missing my younger days Oh, then you should have known Me much better Cause my past is something that never Got in my way Oh no Still I would not be here now If I never had the hunger And I'm not ashamed to say The wild boys were my friends Oh Cause I never felt the desire 'Til their music set me on fire And then I was saved, yeah That's why I'm keeping the faith Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Keeping the faith We wore matador boots Only Flagg Brothers had them with the Cuban heel Iridescent socks with the same color shirt And a tight pair of chinos Oh I put on my shark skin jacket You know the kind with the velvet collar And ditty-bop shades Oh yeah I took a fresh pack of Luckys And a mint called Sen-Sen My old man's Trojans And his Old Spice after shave Oh Combed my hair in a pompadour Like the rest of the Romeos wore A permanent wave Yeah We were keeping the faith Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Keeping the faith You can get just so much From a good thing You can linger too long In your dreams Say goodbye to the Oldies but goodies Cause the good ole days weren't Always good And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems Learned stickball as a formal education Lost a lot of fights But it taught me how to lose O.K. Oh I heard about sex But not enough I found you could dance And still look tough anyway Oh yes I did I found out a man ain't just being macho Ate an awful lot of late night drive-in food Drank a lot of take-home pay I thought I was the Duke of Earl When I made it with a red-haired girl In the Chevrolet Oh yeah We were keeping the faith Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Keeping the faith You know the good ole days weren't Always good And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems Now I told you my reasons For the whole revival Now I'm going outside to have An ice cold beer in the shade Oh I'm going to listen to my 45's Ain't it wonderful to be alive When the rock 'n' roll plays Yeah When the memory stays Yeah I'm keeping the faith Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Keeping the faith I'm keeping the faith Yes I am An Innocent Man This is the title track from An Innocent Man. Some people stay far away from the door If there's a chance of it opening up They hear a voice in the hall outside And hope that it just passes by Some people live with the fear of a touch And the anger of having been a fool They will not listen to anyone So nobody tells them a lie I know you're only protecting yourself I know you're thinking of somebody else Someone who hurt you But I'm not above Making up for the love You've been denying you could ever feel I'm not above doing anything To restore your faith if I can Some people see through the eyes of the old Before they ever get a look at the young I'm only willing to hear you cry Because I am an innocent man I am an innocent man Oh yes I am Some people say they will never believe Another promise they hear in the dark Because they only remember too well They heard somebody tell them before Some people sleep all alone every night Instead of taking a lover to bed Some people find that it's easier to hate Than to wait anymore I know you don't want to hear what I say I know you're gonna keep turning away But I've been there and if I can survive I can keep you alive I'm not above going through it again I've not above being cool for a while If you're cruel to me I'll understand Some people run from a possible fight Some people figure they can never win And although this is a fight I can lose The accused is an innocent man I am an innocent man Oh yes I am An innocent man You know you only hurt yourself out of spite I guess you'd rather be a martyr tonight That's your decision But I'm not below Anybody I know If there's a chance of resurrecting a love I'm not above going back to the start To find out where the heartache began Some people hope for a miracle cure Some people just accept the world as it is But I'm not willing to lay down and die Because I am an innocent man I am an innocent man Oh yes I am An innocent man A Matter Of Trust This song is from The Bridge Album. Some love is just a lie of the heart The cold remains of what began with a passionate start And they may not want it to end But it will it's just a question of when I've lived long enough to have learned The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned But that won't happen to us Because it's always been a matter of trust I know you're an emotional girl It took a lot for you to not lose your faith in this world I can't offer you proof But you're going to face a moment of truth It's hard when you're always afraid You just recover when another belief is betrayed So break my heart of you must It's a matter of trust You can't go the distance With too much resistance I know you have doubts But for God's sake don't shut me out This time you've got nothing to lose You can take it, you can leave it Whatever you choose I won't hold back anything And I'll walk a way a fool or a king Some love is just a lie of the mind It's make believe until its only a matter of time And some might have learned to adjust But then it never was a matter of trust I'm sure you're aware love We've both had our share of Believing too long When the whole situation was wrong Some love is just a lie of the soul A constant battle for the ultimate state of control After you've heard lie upon lie There can hardly be a question of why Some love is just a lie of the heart The cold remains of what began with a passionate start But that can't happen to us Because it's always been a matter of trust Baby Grand This duet with Ray Charles is from The Bridge Album. Late at night When it's dark and cold I reach out For someone to hold When I'm blue When I'm lonely She comes through She's the only one who can My baby grand Is all I need In my time I've wandered everywhere Around this world She would always be there Any day Any hour All it takes Is the power in my hands This baby grand's Been good to me I've had friends But they have slipped away I've had fame But it doesn't stay I've made fortunes Spent them fast enough As for woman They don't last with just one man But baby grand Will stand by me They say that no one's gonna play this on the radio They said the melancholy blues were dead and gone But only songs like these Played in minor keys Keep those memories holding on I've come far From the life I've strayed in I've got scars From those dives I've played in Now I'm home And I'm weary In my bones Every dreary one night stand But baby grand Came home with me Ever since this gig began My baby grand's Been good to me This Is The Time This song is from The Bridge. We walked on the beach beside that old hotel They're tearing it down now But it's just as well I haven't shown you everything a man can do So stay with me baby I've got plans for you This is the time to remember Cause it will not last forever These are the days To hold on to Cause we won't Although we'll want to This is the time But time is gonna change You've given me the best of you And now I need the rest of you Did you know that before you came into my life It was some kind of miracle that I survived Some day we will both look back And have to laugh We lived through a lifetime And the aftermath This is the time to remember Cause it will not last forever These are the days To hold on to Cause we won't Although we want to This is the time But time is gonna change I know we've got to move somehow But I don't want to lose you know Sometimes it's so easy To let a day Slip on by Without even seeing each other at all But this is the time you'll turn back and so will I And those will be the days you can never recall And so we embrace again Behind the dunes This beach is cold On winter afternoons But holding you close is like holding the summer sun I'm warm from the memory of days to come This is the time to remember Cause it will not last forever These are the days To hold on to But we won't Although we'll want to This is the time But time is gonna change You've given me the best of you But now I need the rest of you Leningrad This song appears on the Storm Front Album. Viktor was born in the spring of '44 And never saw his father anymore A child of sacrifice, a child of war Another son who never had a father after Leningrad Went off to school and learned to serve the state Followed the rules and drank his vodka straight The only way to live was drown the hate A Russian life was very sad And such was life in Leningrad I was born in '49 A cold war kid in McCarthy time Stop 'em at the 38th Parallel Blast those yellow reds to hell And cold war kids were hard to kill Under their desk in an air raid drill Haven't they heard we won the war What do they keep on fighting for? Viktor was sent to some Red Army town Served out his time, became a circus clown The greatest happiness he'd ever found Was making Russian children glad And children lived in Leningrad But children lived in Levittown And hid in the shelters underground Until the Soviets turned their ships around And tore the Cuban missiles down And in that bright October sun We knew our childhood days were done And I watched my friends go off to war What do they keep on fighting for? And so my child and I came to this place To meet him eye to eye and face to face He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced We never knew what friends we had Until we came to Leningrad We Didn't Start The Fire This song is from the Storm Front Album. '49 Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio '50 Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe '51 Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye" '52 Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new Queen Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye CHORUS We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it '53 Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc '54 Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock" '55 Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland '56 Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez CHORUS '57 Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" '58 Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball Starkweather, homicide, Children of Thalidomide '59 Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go '60 U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo CHORUS '61 Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land" Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion '62 "Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson '63 Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say CHORUS '64 - '89 Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan "Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore CHORUS We didn't start the fire But when we are gone Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on... I Go To Extremes This song is from the Storm Front Album. Call me a joker, call me a fool Right at this moment I'm totally cool Clear as a crystal, sharp as a knife I feel like I'm in the prime of my life Sometimes it feels like I'm going too fast I don't know how long this feeling will last Maybe it's only tonight CHORUS Darling I don't know why I go to extremes Too high or too low there ain't no in-betweens And if I stand or I fall It's all or nothing at all Darling I don't know why I go to extremes Sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I'm shot Sometimes I don't know how much more I've got Maybe I'm headed over the hill Maybe I've set myself up for the kill Tell me how much do you think you can take Until the heart in you is starting to break? Sometimes it feels like it will CHORUS Out of the darkness, into the light Leaving the scene of the crime Either I'm wrong or I'm perfectly right every time Sometimes I lie awake, night after night Coming apart at the seams Eager to please, ready to fight Why do I go to extremes? CHORUS No I don't know why I go to extremes Too high or too low There ain't no in-betweens You can be sure when I'm gone I won't be out there too long Darling I don't know why I go to extremes And So It Goes This song appears on the Storm Front Album. In every heart there is a room A sanctuary safe and strong To heal the wounds from lovers past Until a new one comes along I spoke to you in cautious tones You answered me with no pretense And still I feel I said too much My silence is my self defense And every time I've held a rose It seems I only felt the thorns And so it goes, and so it goes And so will you soon I suppose But if my silence made you leave Then that would be my worst mistake So I will share this room with you And you can have this heart to break And this is why my eyes are closed It's just as well for all I've seen And so it goes, and so it goes And you're the only one who knows So I would choose to be with you That's if the choice were mine to make But you can make decisions too And you can have this heart to break And so it goes, and so it goes And you're the only one who knows The Downeaster Alexa This song is from the Storm Front Album, and is named for Billy's daughter Alexa Ray. Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa" And I'm cruising through Rock Island Sound I have chartered a course to the Vineyard But tonight I am Nantucket bound We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday And left this morning from the bell in Gardner's Bay Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa" And I go where the ocean is deep There are giants out there in the canyons And a good captain can't fall asleep I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes I know there's fish out there but where God only knows They say these waters aren't what they used to be But I've got people back on land who count on me So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa" And if you work with the rod and the reel Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis And I still have my hands on the wheel Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa" More and more miles from shore every year Since they told me I can't sell no stripers And there's no luck in swordfishing here I was a bayman like my father was before Can't make a living as a bayman anymore There ain't much future for a man who works the sea But there ain't no island left for islanders like me Shameless This song appears on the Storm Front Album. Well I'm shameless when it comes to loving you I'd do anything you want me to I'd do anything at all And I'm standing here for all the world to see There ain't that much left of me That has very far to fall You know I'm not a man who has ever been Insecure about the world I've been living in I don't break easy, I have my pride But if you need to be satisfied I'm shameless, baby I don't have a prayer Anytime I see you standing there I go down upon my knees And I'm changing, I swore I'd never compromise But you convinced me otherwise I'll do anything you please You see in all my life I've never found What I couldn't resist, what I couldn't turn down I could walk away from anyone I ever knew But I can't walk away from you I have never let anything have this much control over me Cause I worked too hard to call my life my own Yes I made myself a world and it worked so perfectly But it's your world now, I can't refuse I never had so much to lose I'm shameless...shameless You know it should be easy for a man who's strong To say he's sorry or admit when he's wrong I've never lost anything I ever missed But I've never been in love like this... It's out of my hands I'm shameless, I don't have the power now But I don't want it anyhow So I've got to let it go I'm shameless, shameless as a man can be You can make a total fool of me I just wanted you to know I am shameless Shameless Shameless... All About Soul This song appears on the River Of Dreams Album. She waits for me at night, she waits for me in silence She gives me all her tenderness and takes away my pain And so far she hasn't run, though I swear she's had her moments She still believes in miracles while others cry in vain It's all about soul It's all about faith and a deeper devotion It's all about soul 'Cause under the love is a stronger emotion She's got to be strong 'Cause so many things getting out of control Should drive her away So why does she stay? It's all about soul She turns to me sometimes and asks me what I'm dreaming And I realize I must have gone a million miles away And I ask her how she knew to reach out for me that moment And she smiles because it's understood there are no words to say It's all about soul It's all about knowing what someone is feeling The woman's got soul The power of love and the power of healing This life isn't fair It's gonna get dark, it's gonna get cold You've got to be tough, but that ain't enough It's all about soul There are people who have lost every trace of human kindness There are many who have fallen, there are some who still survive She comes to me at night and she tells me her desires And she gives me all the love I need to keep my faith alive It's all about soul It's all about joy that comes out of sorrow It's all about soul Who's standing now and who's standing tomorrow You've got to be hard Hard as the rock in that old rock 'n' roll song But that's only part, you know in your heart It's all about soul Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) This song appears on the River Of Dreams Album, and was written for Billy's daughter, Alexa Ray. Goodnight, my angel Time to close your eyes And save these questions for another day I think I know what you've been asking me I think you know what I've been trying to say I promised I would never leave you And you should always know Wherever you may go No matter where you are I never will be far away Goodnight, my angel Now it's time to sleep And still so many things I want to say Remember all the songs you sang for me When we went sailing on an emerald bay And like a boat out on the ocean I'm rocking you to sleep The water's dark And deep inside this ancient heart You'll always be a part of me Goodnight, my angel Now it's time to dream And dream how wonderful your life will be Someday your child may cry And if you sing this lullabye Then in your heart There will always be a part of me Someday we'll all be gone But lullabyes go on and on... They never die That's how you And I Will be The River Of Dreams This is the title track from the River Of Dreams Album. In the middle of the night I go walking in my sleep From the mountains of faith To a river so deep I must be looking for something Something sacred I lost But the river is wide And it's too hard to cross And even though I know the river is wide I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore And try to cross to the opposite side So I can finally find out what I've been looking for In the middle of the night I go walking in my sleep Through the valley of fear To a river so deep And I've been searching for something Taken out of my soul Something I would never lose Something somebody stole I don't know why I go walking at night But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life Until I find what it is that I've been looking for In the middle of the night I go walking in my sleep Through the jungle of doubt To a river so deep I know I'm searching for something Something so undefined That it can only be seen By the eyes of the blind In the middle of the night I'm not sure about a life after this God knows I've never been a spiritual man Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river That runs to the promised land In the middle of the night I go walking in my sleep Though the desert of truth To the river so deep We all end in the ocean We all start in the streams We're all carried along By the river of dreams In the middle of the night To Make You Feel My Love This song does not appear on any of Billy's other albums, and was written and performed originally by Bob Dylan. When the rain is blowing in your face And the whole world is on your case I could offer you a warm embrace To make you feel my love When evening shadows and the stars appear And there is no one there to dry your tears I could hold you for a million years To make you feel my love I know you haven't made your mind up yet But I would never do you wrong I've known it from the moment that we met No doubt in my mind where you belong I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue I'd go crawling down the avenue There's nothing that I wouldn't do To make you feel my love The storms are raging on the rollin' sea And on the highway of regret The winds of change are blowing wild and free You ain't seen nothing like me yet I could make you happy, make your dreams come true Nothing that I wouldn't do Go to the ends of the earth for you To make you feel my love Hey Girl This song does not appear on any of Billy's other albums, and was written by C. King and J. Goffin. Hey girl! I want you to know I'm gonna miss you so much if you go And hey girl! I tell you no lie Something deep inside of me's going to die If you must say so long If this is good-bye Oh! Hey girl! This can't be true How am I supposed to exist without you And hey girl! Now don't put me on, What's gonna happen to me when you're gone How will I live, How can I go on How can I go on Hey girl! Oh! Hey girl! Now sit yourself down, I'm not ashamed to get down on the ground And then beg you to stay Don't go away Hey girl! Don't go away Hey girl! Don't go away Light As The Breeze This song does not appear on any of Billy's other albums, and was written and originally performed by Leonard Cohen. She stands before you naked You can see it, you can taste it But she comes to you Light as the breeze You can drink or you can nurse it It don't matter how you worship As long as you're Down on your knees So I knelt there at the delta At the alpha and the omega At the cradle of the river And the seas And like a blessing come from heaven, For something like a second, I was healed, and my heart Was at ease O baby I waited So long for your kiss For something to happen Oh - something like this And you're weak and you're harmless And you're sleeping in your harness And the wind going wild In the trees And it's not exactly prison But you'll never be forgiven For whatever you've done With the keys O baby I waited So long for your kiss For something to happen Oh - something like this It's dark and it's snowing Oh my love I must be going The river is starting to freeze And I'm sick of pretending I'm broken from bending I've lived too long On my knees And she dances so graceful And your heart's hard and hateful And she's naked But that's just a tease And you turn in disgust From your hatred and from your love And she comes to you Light as the breeze O baby I waited So long for your kiss For something to happen Oh - something like this There's blood on every bracelet You can see it, you can taste it And it's please baby Please baby please And she says, drink deeply, pilgrim But don't forget there's still a woman Beneath this Resplendent chemise So I knelt at the delta At the alpha and the omega I knelt there Like one who believes And like a blessing come from heaven For something like a second I was cured, and my heart Was at ease O baby I waited So long for your kiss For something to happen Oh - something like this