Woke Up This Morning

(album: Exile On Coldharbour Lane - 1997)

And after three days of drinking with Larry Love, I just get an inkling to go on home

So, I'm walking down Coldharbour Lane, head hung low, three or four in the morning. The sun's coming up and the birds are out singing. I let myself into my pad. Wend myself up that spiral staircase and stretch out nice on the Chesterfield

Pithecanthropus Erectus already on the CD player and I just push that remote button to sublimity. And listen to the sweet sculptural rhythms of Charles Mingus. And J.R. Monterose and Jackie McLean duet on those saxophones and, the sound makes its way out the window mingling with the traffic noises outside you know, and all of a sudden I'm overcome by a feeling of brief mortality

Cause I'm getting on in the world, coming up on forty-one years. Forty-one stony gray steps towards the grave, you know, the box awaits its grisly load. Now I'm gonna be food for worms

And just like Charles Mingus wrote that beautiful piece of music 'Epitaph' for Eric Dolphy, I say, so long Eric. So long John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. So long Duke Ellington and Lester Young. So long Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. So long Jimmy Reed. So long Muddy Waters, and so long Howling Wolf
(Woke up this mornin')

Woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun
Your mama always said you'd be the Chosen One
She said, "You're one in a million
You got to burn to shine"
But you were born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes

And you woke up this morning
And all that love had gone
Your Papa never told you about right and wrong
Hey but you're, but you're looking good, baby
I believe that you're a-feeling fine
Shame about it
Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes

So sing it now
Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning

I see ya, ya woke up this morning
The world turned upside down
Lord above, things ain't been the same
Since the blues walked into town
Hey but you're, but you're, one in a million
Cause you got that shotgun shine
Shame about it
Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes

So sing it now
Woke up this morning
You got a blue moon
Got a blue moon in your eyes
So sad
Goddamn
A god-damned shame about it
Woke up this morning
You got a blue moon
Got a blue moon in your eyes, yeah

Mister D. Wayne Love

When you woke up this morning everything was gone
By half past ten your head was going ding-dong
Ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes
Like some voice tryin'a tell ya there's something you should know

Last night you was flying but today you're so low
Ain't it times like these makes you wonder if you'll ever know
The meaning of things as they appear to the others
Wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers

Don't you wish you didn't function, don't you wish you didn't think
Beyond the next pay check and the next little drink?
Well you do so make up your mind to go on
Cause when you woke up this morning, everything you had was gone

Woke up this morning
When ya woke up this morning

Woke up this morning
Ya woke up this morning

Woke up this morning
You wanna be, you wanna be the Chosen One
Yeah you know it cause, you just can't help yourself, yeah

Woke up this morning
When ya, woke up this morning

Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning

Woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun
Got yourself a gun
Got yourself a gun