| Lyrics: | by Bob Dylan
Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block.
I'd ask him
what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk.
And the ladies treat me kindly
And
furnish me with tape,
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape.
Oh, Mama, can
this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues
again.
Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his
bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a
message
To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the
mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of
Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from
the train line.
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like
wine.
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that,
But then again, there's only one I've
met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
An' punched my cigarette."
Oh, Mama, can this
really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues
again.
Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks,
But everybody
still talks about
How badly they were shocked.
But me, I expected it to happen,
I
knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of
holes.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the
Memphis blues again.
Now the senator came down here
Showing ev'ryone his
gun,
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son.
An' me, I nearly got
busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered
beneath a truck.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of
Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Now the preacher looked so baffled
When I
asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest.
But he
cursed me when I proved it to him,
Then I whispered, "Not even you can hide.
You see,
you're just like me,
I hope you're satisfied."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the
end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Now the rainman
gave me two cures,
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The
other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my
mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this
really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues
again.
When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can
watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You
must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But
I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of
Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where
the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well
timed.
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to
get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the
end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again |
