Woke Up This Morning

And after three days of drinking with Larry Love

I just get an incline to go on home

So, I'm walking down Coldharbour Lane, head hung low

Three or four in the morning

The sun's coming up, and the birds are out singing

I let myself into my pad

Wend myself up that spiral staircase and stretch out nice on the Chesterfield

Pithecanthropus Erectus already on the CD player and I just push that remote button to sublimity

And listen to the sweet sculptural rhythms of Charles Mingus

And J.R. Monterose and Jackie McLean duet on those saxophones and

The sound makes its way out the window, mingling with the traffic noises outside, you know

All of a sudden I'm overcome by a feeling of brief mortality

'Cause I'm getting on in the world, coming up on 41 years

41 stony gray steps towards the grave, you know the box awaits

It's, it's grisly load

Now I'm gonna be food for worms

And just like Charles Mingus wrote that beautiful piece of music

Epitaph for Eric Dolphy

I say, "So long, Eric, So long John Coltrane and Charles Mingus

So long Duke Ellington and Lester Young

So long Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald

So long Jimmy Reed, so long Muddy Waters, and so long Howling Wolf"

(Woke up this morning)

You woke up this morning

Got yourself a gun

Your mama always said you'd be the chosen One

She said, "You're one in a million

You got to burn to shine"

But you were born under a bad sign

With a blue moon in your eyes

And you woke up this morning

And all that love had gone

Your Papa never told you about, right and wrong

Hey but you're, but you're looking good, baby

I believe that you're feeling fine

Shame about it

Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes

So sing it now

(Woke up this morning) oh yeah, oh yeah

(Woke up this morning) oh yeah, oh yeah

(Woke up this morning) oh yeah, oh yeah

(Woke up this morning) oh yeah, oh yeah