TWEETER AND THE MONKEY MAN
The Travelling Wilburys
 

Tweeter and the Monkey Man
were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night
selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop
who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained
she loved the Monkey Man

Tweeter was a boyscout
of course he went to Vietnam
Found out the hard way
nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found
freedom just across the
Jersey Line
Hopped into a stolen car
took highway 99

When the walls came down
all the way to hell
Never saw them where
they're standing
Never saw them when
they fell

The undercover cop
he never liked the Monkey Man
Even back in high school
wanted to see him in the can
Jan got married at 14
to a racketeer named Bill
made secret plans
for the Monkey Man
from a mansion on the hill

It was out on thunder road
Tweeter at the wheel
crashed into paradise
you could hear the tires squeal
It was Jan who told
me many times
It was you to me who taught
In Kingston everything's legal man
as long as you don't get caught
 

When the walls came down...
 

A place by Rahway prison
they ran out of gas
The undercover cop cornered them
said you didn't think this would last
Jan jumped out of bed
said there's some place I gotta go
She took a gun out of the drawer
said it's best that you don't know
The ambulance rolled up
state trooper close behind
Tweeter pulled his gun away
and messed up his mind
the undercover cop was found
face down in a field
The Monkey Man was on
the river bridge
using Tweeter as a shield

When the walls came down...

The town of Jersey City,
it's quieting down again
I'm sitting in a gambling club
called the Lion's Den
The TV set is blown up
every bit of it is gone
Ever since the night when the show
That the Monkey Man was on
Maybe I'll go to Florida
get myself some sun
There ain't no more
opportunity here and
everything's been done
Sometimes I think of Tweeter
Sometimes I think of Jan
Sometimes I don't think about
nothing but the Monkey Man

When the walls came down...

THREE ANGELS
Dillon/Carr/Gibson
 

Three angels setting a table for me tonight
They know my face
they set a place for me tonight
Well I can't disappoint them
so I guess I join them
They've been waiting on me forever
I've been down on earth and in this town
Man there's got to be something better

New suit  New tie
Real nice service for me when I die
New suit cufflinks and a new tie
Real nice service for me when I die

That's the thing about living
When you get there
you're seldom forgiven
And all your best friends
are people that you just met
You can take 'em or leave 'em
They're sitting in this barroom
I guess that beats the hell
out of lonliness - sweet lonliness

We're the type we live and learn
Scatter my ashes and smash the urn
Into a broken room with 25 doors
that you can open
Each time you open one
the other twenty-four are exploding

That's the thing about living
When you get there
you take what you're given
And all your best friends
are people that you just met
You can take 'em or leave 'em
They're sitting in this barroom
I guess that beats the hell
out of lonliness
sweet lonliness

HEARTS LOVE & HONOR
Dillon/Carr
 

There ain't no time for hearts love and honour
That ship left & I wasn't on her
Now I smile and I wave from the dock
And we both know that we sunk that
ship with rocks

We dedicate ourselves to lovers, causes, things
We dedicate ourselves
We dedicate ourselves to lovers, causes, things
dedicate

Broke that line still ain't that much calmer
The water's cold now and long ago lost its color
From blue to black that's when the current
stopped
For there is now memory of how the
circuits crossed

We dedicate ourselves to lovers, causes, things
We dedicate ourselves
So corrosive so much so it's lost it's sting
I had to laugh like hell

There ain't no time for hearts love and honour
That ship left & I wasn't on her
No point in asking there'll not be another dance
By the time you're leaving you're back to
waltzing in chains

UNSOUND
Dillon/Carr/White
 

I smiled 'cause I know I tried
firing up the circuits
can't see myself jumping double-dutch
'Cause I know I'd smell the plastic burning
Last night was a pessimistic skydive
In a foolish narcotic shell
Beat the boredom that frames the lightning
Beat the path of the rituals

Gonna become...

Bottom lip quivers, rage is so apparent
Don't know whether to kill or cry
Don't know whether to rebuild or to burn it
You don't know how just to say goodbye
I'll tell you what, what's to tell
It's the world, not a call I can screen out
Keep it down, see if it digests
Your batteries are shot -
so are the instruments

Gonna become
Gonna become... You better run don't want to
become yourself

Flies in and out of focus
Next best thing to a rage
I don't like the way that it coaxes me to explain
If you don't realize it's crazy
If you can't understand the source
Don't reach too fast for the answers
'Cause it gets worse

Turn your face to the day that's striking
Bend the barrel when the chamber's full
I'd give you more but you know that there's
nothing
Hardly get any sleep at all
I'll tell you what, what's to tell
It's the world not a call I can screen out
Don't kill your partner 'fore the dancing's
started
Kill the path of the ritual