October Blues

I can't tell the smoke from the fog, oh my love

I can’t see the bridge today from my bay window, oh my love

Lonely, lonely days, just me and a Fante book and your cat

I can't wait for you, I can't wait for you to come back

I need your love like a crack addict needs crack

In the flower pot that’s sits on my fire escape

The mother dove and her young ones are long gone

Over the summer they flew away

Last night I came home the studio and I cried

Lookin' at old photos of myself in a cabin in West Virginia when I was a child

I used to spend all day catching salamanders in thе steam

And me and my dad would catch catfish

And trout and cook 'em up in thе firepit with my family

I only have a few memories of each year of my elementary school life

In kindergarten I used to nap on a rug that looked like a huge green dollar bill

In the first grade I remember them dousing my hair for lice

And gettin' a shot for chicken pox

And in the second grade I remember tornado drills

In the third we had a project where we buried time capsules

Mine had cut outs of David Bowie and Patti Smith and Led Zeppelin articles

When I looked at the other kids capsules, I knew I was on a different path than the other kids

In the fourth grade on Music Day I brought Alice Cooper Goes to Hell

And a kid we called John the Babtist had to leave during that portion

Rock 'n' roll was against his religion

Now I walk through the San Francisco streets and I see all the seagulls and the pigeons

And I carry this weight it's called middle-aged depression

I have so many friends whose mothers and fathers passed of cancer at 59

And hey I'll be 59 in five years’ time

Baby, baby when you comin’ I need you in my corner

Like Ali needed Dundee like Duran needed Ray Arcel

You're my everything, you’re my best friend, and you're my lover

If they put a gun on me I would never trade you for another

Oh yeah I got the October blues

When I walk it's like I got cement in my shoes

Oh yeah I got the October blues

The California fires keep burning the smoke oozing and oozing

Oh Yeah I got the October blues

I look out my window

And everyone has moved

Oh yeah I got the October blues

Oh yeah I got the October blues

Throughout the day and night all I hear are sirens

I watched the debate the other night where Trump abrasively interrupted Joe Biden

I'm makin’ peace with these ordinary life watching news days

When I go to sleep i see the lambent light of my candle flickering

The heat wave is so bad i use it to kill off the mosquitoes

When I fall asleep I see spooky apparitions

The walks along the plywood storefronts don't do much for my emotional condition

I got no job. got no travel, I got no paycheck

But you're comin' home on Tuesday and that beats the fuck out of a tour date

In Quebec

Talked to a friend in New York this morning

Today their puttin' their family dog to sleep

And I talked to another friend last week

Whose house burned to the ground in Berry Creek

And I'm sittin' here in the studio sticky from the heat

Counting my blessings

So I don't have hits like Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings

And there's so many weddings and funerals that by zoom we're all attending

But time with you I know I'll soon be spending

And that's The October Blues ending