Potter's Field Lyrics

          well you can buy me a drink and i'll tell you what i seen
        and i'll give you a bargain from the edge of a maniac's dream
          that buys a black widow spider with a riddle in his yarn
             that's clinging to the furrow of a blindman's brow
        i'll start talking from the brim of a thimble full of whiskey
         on a train through the bronx that will take you just as far
              as the empty of a bottle to the highway of a scar
          that stretched across the blacktop of my cheek like that
             and then ducks beneath the brim of a fugitive's hat
     and you'll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face
             that ever left his shadow down on saint marks place

      hell i'd double cross my mother if it was whiskey that they payed
           and so an early bird says nightsticks on the hit parade
             and he ain't got a prayer and his days are numbered
                    and you'll track him down like a dog
           well it's a tough customer you're getting in this trade
                 cause the nightstick's heart pumps lemonade
                well whiskey keeps a blindman talkin alright
       and i'm the only one who knows just where he stayed last night

               he was in a wreckin yard in a switchblade storm
         in a wheelbarrow with nothing but revenge to keep him warm
               and a half a million dollars in unmarked bills
               was the nightstick's blanket in a febuary chill
                   and as the buzzard drove a crooked sky
                    he was dealin high chicago in the mud
                and stackin' the deck against a dragnet's eye
                 a shivering nightstick in a miserable heap
              with the siren for a lullaby singing him to sleep
                      he was bleeding from a buttonhole
          torn by a slug fired from the barrel of a two dollar gun
            that scorched a blister on the grip of a punk by now
             is learnin what you have to pay to be a hero anyhow

        he dressed the hole in his gut with a hundred dollar bandage
         a king's ransom for a bedspread that don't amount to nuttin
                   just cobweb strings on a busted ukulele
               and the nightstick leaned on a black shillelagh
           with the poison of a junkie's broken promise on his lip

       he staggered in the shadows screaming i ain't never been afraid
             and he shot out every street light on the promenade
             past the frozen ham and eggers at the penny arcade
               throwin out handfuls of a blood stained salary
            they were dead in their tracks at the shootin gallery
                 and they fired off a twenty one gun salute
         and from the corner of his eye he caught the alabaster orbs
    and from a dime a dance hall girl and stuffed a thousand dollar bill
   in her blouse and caught the cruel and unusual punishment of her smile
             and the nightstick winked beneath a rainsoaked brim
                 ain't no one seen hide nor hair of him see
                 no one but a spade on rikers island and me
     and so if you're mad enough to listen to a full of whiskey blindman
     then you're mad enough to look beyond where bloodhounds dare to go
        so if you want to know just where the nightstick's hidin out
   you be down at the ferry landin oh let's say bout half past a nightmare
          when it's twisted on a clock you tell 'em nickels sentcha
                        whiskey always makes him talk
          and you ask for captain charon with the mud on his kicks
                  he's the skipper of the deadline steamer
             and she sails from the bronx across the river styx
                 and a riddle's just a ticket for a dreamer

      cause when the weathervane's sleepin and the moon turns his back
              you crawl on your belly long the railroad tracks
     and cross your heart and hope to die and stick a needle in your eye
     cause he'd cut my bleedin heart out if he found out that i squealed
                 cause you see a scarecrow's just a hoodlum
                     who marked the cards that he dealed
                          and pulled a gypsy switch
                      out on the edge of potter's field