Ambulance Blues

(album: On The Beach - 1974)

Back in the old folky days
The air was magic when we played
The riverboat was rocking
In the rain
Midnight was the time
For the raid

Oh, Isabella, proud Isabella
They tore you down and
Plowed you under
You're only real
With your make-up on
How could I see you
And stay too long?

All along the Navajo Trail
Burn-outs stub their toes
On garbage pails
Waitresses are crying
In the rain
Will their boyfriends
Pass this way again?

Old Mother Goose
She's on the skids
The shoe ain't happy
Neither are the kids
She needs someone
That she can scream at
And I'm such a heel
For making her feel so bad

I guess I'll call it
Sickness gone
It's hard to say
The meaning of this song
An ambulance can only
Go so fast
It's easy to get buried
In the past
When you try to make
A good thing last

I saw today
In the entertainment section
There's room at the top
For private detection
To Mom and Dad
This just doesn't matter
But it's either that
Or pay off the kidnapper

So all you critics sit alone
You're no better than me
For what you've shown
With your stomach pump and
Your hook and ladder dreams
We could get together
For some scenes

Well, I'm up in T.O.
Keeping jive alive
And out on the corner
It's half past five
But the subways are empty
And so are the cafes

Except for the Farmer's Market
And I still can hear him saying
You're all just pissing
In the wind
You don't know it but you are

And there ain't nothing
Like a friend
Who can tell you
You're just pissing
In the wind

I never knew a man
Could tell so many lies
He had a different story
For every set of eyes
How can he remember
Who he's talking to?
Cause I know it ain't me
And hope it isn't you