JAZZ MUSICIAN

a.k.a. THE JAZZ MAN PLAYS HIS HORN
a.k.a. THE JAZZ MUSICIAN PLAYS HIS HORN

Version 3

Well it's a Saturday night in New Jersey
And you're feeling kinda wet
Now the summer heat is getting you worried
So you look as innocent as you can as you sweat
You've got a woman on the other side of the law
But it ain't cool to go see her yet
Because her ex-old man's some half-shot detective
With his heart set on Dragnet
And so you stand on the corner looking kinda torn
And in the Blue Light Lounge
Where death was born
The jazz musician blows his horn

You pop a letter to your baby in Richmond
'Cause you're feeling kinda down
She's kinda small but at least she don't bitch none
She needs you real bad
And sometimes that's all that counts
Whoa you had a teenage band and flying hands
And yeah, you were pretty big in the South
But you passed out on stage and flew into a rage
And someone tried to revive you
Mouth to mouth
And you felt a pain in your chest
As you passed the crown
And in the Blue Light Lounge
The lights went down
And the audience, like monks, slipped silently out of town

Well now the atheist burns you for laughing out loud
Cause he can't understand what you're saying
Whoa and the DJ, he's rattling like a Gatling Gun
But man, that's your record he's playing
Oh, and outside the park is dark but the sidewalk's bright
And alive with the light of the living
Oh and baby can I walk you home tonight
'Cause it's bad outside and there's so much of a giving
I was stranded in the jungle
First stage witness at a company killing
Shuffling my feet, clutching my high school diploma
Promised sixty bucks a week
And top billing
And has anybody seen sweet Gabriel
That dark woman with the funny tattoo
The curtain calls of her shadow on my walls
Are all I got to pull me through

Oh and out on the corner there's no room to move
'Cause everybody's trying so hard to groove
And in the Blue Light Lounge
The jazz man plays his blues

Appeared on the semi-legal CD Before The Fame.

These lyrics refer to the version recorded for the Laurel Canyon Demos between Jun and Jul 1972 at Media and 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York City. Check also version 1 and version 2.