Night Vision

released 1973 & 2005

Also On:
Speechless – 2005
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 1 – 2014

You don’t have to play the horses
Life’s a gamble all the same
It don’t take much to make you lose sight
Of the object of the game

Anyone can be a soldier
It’s a prevalent disease
Oh God I don’t know where to step now
Help me find the right road please

So we wait beside the desert
Nothing left to give away
Naked as the Hanged Man’s secrets
Praying for the break of day

February 9, 1972 – Ottawa, Canada

Also On:
Mummy Dust – 1981
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 1 – 2014

I’ve been to the tundra and the mountain too
I’ve been in paris doing what the frenchmen do
I’ve been in boston where the buildings grow so tall
Everywhere you go the blues got the world by the balls

You can catch ’em from the preacher or from the pool shark
You can find ’em in the grammar of the socialite’s remark
Or down in the washroom you can read it on the wall
Everywhere you look the blues got the world by the balls

Spring 1972 – Mostly Chilliwack, British Colombia, Canada

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 2 – 2014

I hear the city singing like a siren choir
Some fool tried to set this town on fire
TV preacher screams “come on along”
I feel like Fay Wray face to face with King Kong
But mama just wants to barrelhouse all night long

Sometimes I wonder what I am
I feel like I’m living in a hologram
It doesn’t seem to matter what’s right or wrong
Everybody’s grabbing and coming on strong
But mama just wants to barrelhouse all night long

January 19, 1973 -Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Circles In The Stream – 1977
Resume – 1981
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 2 – 2014

released 1974 & 2005

Also On:
Speechless – 2005
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 2 – 2014

He tells me the future is not to be believed in
“Don’t waste your wishes on what hasn’t already been”
But like the strong arm policeman
He’s not sure what he means
All he knows is he can’t see what he will come to be

He says if we burn up the roof from above us
We surely will see the light and maybe more
But like the burnt out hooker
We’ll only see down to the floor
All we know is that we’re here until we are set free

September 28, 1969 – Ottawa, Canada

If you’re in the valley
When the dam breaks, palley
You is going to feel alone
So honey come on home

If you’re on the bum
And the policemen come
If you lose your grip
Or your trousers rip
I’ll be waiting dear

Honey won’t you come on home…

Spring 1972 – Between Jasper and Valleyview, Alberta, Canada

Deja vu
Slow lines on pages
Shape words like echoes
Of a ball bounced in an empty street

Deja vu
Sun on hair dancing
To breeze-borne snatches
Of a lost music box melody

October 22, 1972 – Toronto, Canada

released 1973

Sea swells
Illusion is queen
In the shallow graves of experience time-centred
Grave silence reigns over the stars
Graven image hanging in time
While the earth unwinds

With rain the world grows us older
Lord let us not be lost
God bless the children with knowledge of the cost

Day comes
The hawk of gold
Springs forth in flame from a highway paved with diamonds
Lion rampant on a green field
Ramparts cracked into the sky
While the Christ stands by

With pain the world paves us over
Lord let us not betray
God bless the children with visions of the Day

June 14, 1972 – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Also On:
Circles In The Stream – 1977