Fighting for survival is such a boring Battle Want to get into my car I wanna drive out to Seattle Where the used record stores Have much better prices But I don't have a car And I don't have a license Should I take another trip to the DMV Get another learners permit with a picture of me I'd put it in my wallet Along with my four dollars And the condom that's still in there That has probably expired I'd leave home for New York But New York is where I'm from I'm just looking for a way To feel my life has begun Living in the city Where I'm working like a walrus But I don't need your money Man I'm gonna be an artist Feeling like I wanna do whatever I feel inside Put it down on paper And I'll hope that people buy it And my only minor worry Is how to pay the rent But that won't even matter When I lose my apartment Then I'll really have no worries I'll be just like a cassette That you've taped up the tabs up To put something new on it And when I hit record God only knows what I will be And if there is no god Then it's a better mystery Fighting for survival and I guess I must Be winning And my story is so long I can't remember the beginning Am I an optimist Or am I a pessimist If I see a half empty half full cup Is half full Of nothingness.

Walkin' up 23rd street I was tired and alone it was late and my housemate would be asleep when I got home the sign ahead glowin' red said the Chelsea Hotel where Nancy and Syd Vicious and my friend Dave once dwelled the street was black under my feet which continued their walkin' though I was vaguely interested in the folks behind me talkin' two guys maybe gay wearing raver type suits and a girl wearing glasses who looked kinda cute her hair was short and curly she had a tattoo on her back which i could see 'cause her red shirt was sleeveless with straps but I only saw this later not in my first glance but I could hear her talkin behind me and as if by chance she was tryin' to describe a song I knew well the Leonard Cohen song about the Chelsea Hotel and I smiled a smile to myself when she said that was the song where he talked about someone giving him head on the bed was unmade and how the song was outrageous and that's when I got uncharacteristically courageous I could left the three of them laughin' and just gone on home but i turned and i faced her and i said Leonard Cohen? .....just like that.... She was shocked and surprised but she looked very happy that she now had a witness to back up her story she looked at me with her spectacled eyes and said "see i told u" to the two others guys my tale might have ending right there and then but we started talkin' about Leornard Cohen how his lyrics were cool and how he sang so sincere it must have been true and it happened right here usually women right of the bat don't find me that great but there we were laughin', strollin' like we could really releate although we didn't mention the head line it was alluded and the conversation was better 'cause her friends were not included the guys were more into each other at least that's how it seemed to me I heard the faint knocking of opportunity Although it's easy for me now upon my looking back to think of all the things I could have said to make me the mac just keep the sad truth in mind as i tell this to you that we really only talked for a minute or two and I never got her name and she never got mine but in those couple short minutes we had a pretty good time And on top of that though you may not believe it What she says to me next? I'll repeat it that line about getting a blow job that Leonard sings... she said it made her want to do naughty things! right about then I should have asked if she knew what the Chelsea charged if we got a room for two but I didn't and I know I'm a schmuck, don't you doubt it the only thing I did was write this stupid song about it if I was Leonard Cohen or some other song writing master I'd know to first get the oral sex and then write the song after you can practise writing songs about romance every day but if you haven't loved then you'll have nothing to say we could have given each other head on Leonard's same unmade bed but I was too shy to suggest it and so instead when the three of them stopped to look through a pub window I said good night though I hadn't quite meant to and waved as we walked though I would not forget her especially 'cause she mysteriously said "see you later" Now every time I'm walking I hope that we'd meet and on purpose I always go up 23rd street where the sign glowin' red says the Chelsea Hotel where Nancy and Syd Vicious and my friend drug dealer Dave once dwelled Life doesn't work out the way it does in old songs that's why we sing new ones to say what really goes on so if I ever see her again and we pick up right we we ended maybe I'll play her this song and maybe she won't get too offended and listen I'll tell you why there's more than this situation than meets the eye. you may think it's sad you may think it's pathetic that I sing this song and that she will never know it but if you think a minute about what that means then you'll realise it's actually a wonderful thing that all around the world there maybe folks singin' tunes for the love of others folks they barely knew and it puts a smile on my face yes, it do and let me tell you you ought to be smillin too cause the next time you're feelin' kinda lonesome and blue just think that someone somewhere might be singing about you who knows if I'll ever see her again maybe we'll see this whole time she could have been singing about me probably not but it could be

You say you got a heavy heart You say you got a heavy heart You say you got a heavy heart And its hard for you to start Carrying your heavy old heart You say you got a heavy load You say you got a heavy load You say you got a heavy load Walking down the road Carrying your heavy old heart And you sure dont know, where you're going Sure dont know, where you're going Sure dont know, where you're going But I say The sun dont know, when its glowing The flower dont know, when its growing The river dont know, when its flowing You're doing better than you know You're doing better than you know

It was a night in July, I think six years ago Why did I eat the acid? I don't know I wasn't thinking and I wasn't scared Why did I eat the acid? I wasn't prepared The last time I did acid I went insane I was hanging with some friends just getting loaded When all of a sudden my mind exploded I had a flash that I was gay and I got paranoid I was sitting on the floor listening to Pink Floyd The last time I did acid I went insane And I was drawing crazy pictures and before I was done The pictures started pulsing like an alien lung And I said 'oh my god this has just begun' And it was twelve more hours before it was done We were up on the rooftop and I'll tell you the truth I was convinced I'd already fallen off of the roof And these weird metal things in outer space Were teleporting me from place to place The last time I did acid I went insane So we ran back downstairs where it was better to be But I was trapped in spiral staircase infinity And when we got to the door I couldn't go inside 'Cause it was the gates of heaven and I hadn't died The last time I did acid I went insane And this kid named Graham he punched a cat in the head He could read my thoughts, that's what he said And he described what it was like but I didn't believe it Like lifting a rug and seeing stars beneath it Ooo-ooo And the first rule of tripping was Don't be with people you don't trust The second rule of LSD The rooftop is not a good place to be The third rule is to be prepared The fourth rule is to not get scared The fifth rule is to stay serene Turn off your mind and float downstream The sixth rule's to have a good friend at hand The seventh rule, I hope that you understand Is not to look to deep into your soul Or you might find a hideous, hopeless hole Of hatred, hunger, infinite, idiot Mindless, meaningless, nothingness, nothingness Nothingness, nothingness, nothingness, nothingness Nothingness, nothingness, nothingness, nothingness Nothingness And that's what I did And every aspect of life that I selected Was instantly and brutally dissected I saw the horrible emptiness within The reasons behind everything And it was at that moment that I went insane

I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm He told me his arm was golden He told me it was made out of gold He told me he had a beautiful wife He lied to me He told me he had a dog named Lassie That was true He told me I had a beautiful wife That was true I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm They warned me They said he had a golden arm They lied to me I said I was not worried I knew it was just made of silver I lied to me He said I had a beautiful wife He said he really liked my wife He said they had a real good time together She told me nothing even happened I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm He told me I had a beautiful wife He told me they had a real good time together She told me nothing even happened She lied to me She couldn't even see me She couldn't even talk to me She lied to me She lied She said I was nothing She said I could not compare She said my arm was made out of shit She said I was nothing compared with I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm I'm talkin' 'bout the man with the golden arm He lied to me She lied to me I lied to me More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/the_man_with_the_golden_arm_lyrics_jeffrey_lewis.html All about Jeffrey Lewis: http://www.musictory.com/music/Jeffrey+Lewis