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The City Lights

from Prayer Street Blues by Jeremy Joyce

/

lyrics

When Jack he was just seventeen
His mama said you’re a little green
But I know it’s been a long
Time you want to get off the farm

I’ll always be your mama still
Jackie boy just don’t get killed
This world it ain’t a toy
I’ll always love you Jackie Boy

I know that you want to see the city lights
Keep the farm close to your heart, say your prayers at night

He was riding on the megabus
All he had wasn’t all that much
Stuffed into a duffle bag
He was boppin’ to the Beaumont Rag

At a stop in Illinois somewhere
A Backpacker with Auburn hair
Passed by every open seat
Young Jack’s heart skipped a beat

She sat right down and said hello
Can you tell me where this bus goes
I’m riding all the way out West
By the way my name’s Suzette

And he said
Away I ride
But I would go anywhere with you tonight

They stopped in a small MidWest town
Thought they’d take a look around
Missed the bus and then they thought
Well I guess this was our final stop


Found a room it wasn’t great
Cooked a meal on a hot plate
Laid sleeping bags out on the floor
Couldn’t really ask for more

With the first kiss they felt a spark
The second kiss the lights went dark
As Suzette laid young Jack down
Tornadoes tore trees from the Ground

Jack lost his virginity
Suzette came and when she screamed
Lightning strikes revealed the shape
Of their teenage twist of fate

The wind blew out the windows and the rain came in
Falling in love with a French Canadian. Girl.


Suzette slung beer at a local bar
Jack sold scrap steel and picked guitar
Painted portraits for five bucks a piece
To make Suzette a New Year's’ feast

At Three AM on New Year's’ morn
They ate their dinner on the floor
Suzette cut a lock of ruby strands
And placed them in to young Jack’s hand

He made her hair into a pin
So he’d always have some of her with him
She vowed to never take it back
And said she’d always love her Jack

They drank and danced barefoot to songs they sung aloud
Making wishes for the year that was coming down.

But Jack spent too much time alone
He kind of wished he could go back home
Suzette worked six nights a week
As Jackie boy was feeling weak

He started putting shit up his nose
But you know how the story goes
He was longing for the farm
The first time he banged it in his arm

Jack’s heart skipped a beat before but now it wouldn’t start again
His skin was turning blue when Suzette came in
She drug him to the shower, ran cold water on his chest
But his eyes never opened; he never took another breath

He died there in the shower
his clothes all soaking wet
She thought back to the rain
on the first night that they met
and they made love on the floor

in The Rain

credits

from Prayer Street Blues, released December 31, 2015

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Jeremy Joyce New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans couldn’t offer a more appropriate musical backdrop for Jeremy Joyce, whose genre-defying songs are born out of Jeremy’s macro-level interest in music history and his micro-level interest in what makes songs tick.

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