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 are you gonna run

Tell me, where will you roam

When 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

It wakes you up in the ditch where you're tumbling 'round where the four winds blow

Where are you gonna run

Tell me, where will you roam

When 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 you sad Jane would wait for you till who knows when

But that little girl's got a new tattoo to let you know you can't go home again

Where are you gonna run

Tell me, where will you roam

When you can't go home

You can't go home

Oh, pilgrim, you can't go home

So spin the wheel of St.Columba's and ride his golden calf

Climb up the silver strings of the mandolin till 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 are you gonna run

Tell me, where will you roam

When you can't go home

You can't go home

Oh, pilgrim, you can't go home

I'm dirty and torn, my tails 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 of St. James infirmary