If These Walls Could Speak*

Last night I had a dream I went back to my old home down at 200 orange street a long time ago*
And I walked up to the front porch and I opened the screen door and it hit me like it never did before
Took the stairs up to my bedroom where I spent most of my years
Making faces at my brother, holding him through common fears
And I walked over to the window and my heart almost died
I could hear the neighbors screamin’
“Come outside, come outside.”
And our young voices make me see the kind of children that we used to be
And if these streets could whisper, if these walls could speak
They would scream out love they would cry themselves to sleep
They would pray to Jesus, they would sing rock and roll
They would laugh with each other, they would live soul to soul
But I guess that don’t matter anyway
Cuz if these walls could speak I know what they’d say…
I know what they’d say
Took the hallway to the bedroom where my parents used to sleep
Where I’d sneak in during quiet and my nightmares grew too deep
And I walked over to the closet where my father hung his ties
I still smell the scent of cigarettes and years gone by
That closet used to look so tall and now everything around here seems so small
But if these streets could whisper, if these walls could speak
They would scream out love, they would cry themselves to sleep
They would pray to Jesus, they would sing rock and roll
They would laugh with each other, they would live soul to soul
But I guess that don’t matter anyway
Cuz if these walls could speak I know what they’d say…
I know what they’d say
In this dream of childhood memories some I never will forget, some I might as well
Well most of them have happy endings, some of them still burn like hell…
They burn like hell…they burn like hell, yeah
So to the living room I went, to where my sisters used to sing
Used to get on my last nerve now I’d give anything just to see them there again, dancing like they used to do, spinning circles holding hands until I’d break on through
Well I woke up when I heard a shout, “Ain’t it beautiful how life turned out?”
But if these streets could whisper, if these walls could speak
They would scream out love, they would cry themselves to sleep
They would pray to Jesus, they would sing rock and roll
They would laugh with each other, they would live soul to soul
But I guess that don’t matter anyway
Cuz if these walls could speak I know what they’d say
I know what they’d say, I know what they’d say, I know what’d they say