David Rawlings
Pilgrim (You Can’t Go Home)
I won’t get drunk no more, no more
The old refrain it shines with use
While you sop your bread in barley wine
And mop your floor in tobacco juice
So they kicked you out of paradise
Grinned and locked the garden gate
What those devils called your greatest sin
Gabriel and I called your great escape
Where you gonna run? Tell me where will you roam
When you can’t go home (you can’t go home)
You can’t go home (you can’t go home)
Oh pilgrim, you can’t go home
The gilded cage cannot contain the gypsies of the earth
The poet and the tumbleweed discuss what rootlessness is worth
And pity those who never felt inspiration’s cold wet nose
And wakes you up out in the ditch
Where you’re tumbling round
Where the four winds blow
Where you gonna run? Tell me where will you roam
When you can’t go home (you can’t go home)
You can’t go home (you can’t go home)
Oh pilgrim, you can’t go home
The Polaroids of Indio show desert flowers entwined
Their nakedness has already been blasted by the sands of time
But still you thought your sad Jane
Would wait for you 'til who-knows-when
But that little girl’s got a new tattoo
To let you know you can’t go home again
Where you gonna run? Tell me where will you roam
When you can’t go home (you can’t go home)
You can’t go home (you can’t go home)
Oh pilgrim, you can’t go home
So spin the wheels of St. Columba’s
And ride his golden calf
Climb up the silver strings of the mandolin
'Til you can hear the angels laugh
And if rock and roll is more your thing
Go ahead and wear the badge
'Cause chaos needs another king
A pillar of smoke who don’t look back
Where you gonna run? Tell me where will you roam
When you can’t go home (you can’t go home)
You can’t go home (you can’t go home)
Oh pilgrim, you can’t go home
I am dirty and torn, my tail's hung out
A ship with tattered sails
Been down and out
Around the horn to chase the great white whale
Across the night and across the day
I save my song for eternity
Now here I find you gazing out
Of the window at St. James infirmary
Where you gonna run? Tell me where will you roam
When you can’t go home (you can’t go home)
You can’t go home (you can’t go home)
Oh pilgrim, you can’t go home
So keep rolling, rolling down that road that you’re on
Keep rolling, rolling, rolling on
Rolling on, rolling on, rolling on…
Keep rolling, rolling down that road that you’re on
Keep rolling, rolling, rolling on