Newport ’65

You danced with the bar girls and sang with the band
And you poured every round through the holes in your hands
Til their cups runneth over with the blood of the man
On the lips of the faithful and mean
With a love that was fierce and obscene

You were the shepherd and they were the sheep
And they marched in a line with their backs to the beat
Til you taught them to follow the souls of their feet
Then they trampled your words in the grass
With a mighty wind thick at their backs

The path of the prophet is crooked and cruel
When every false turn means a fall from the truth
And every new road's a betrayal of proof
They’ll scream and they'll squeeze you for more
Of the visions you showed them before

Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that you've stripped your own god to the bone
And accept it that soon you’ll be praying alone
Like you never had listened at all
As if you never had listened at all

So you asked them, at last, if they'd lend you a hand
And of course they would give you their last grain of sand
So you begged them to kneel at the sins of their friends
And they fell and they wept for their loss
As you climbed them and stepped to the cross