The Mercy Beat

There's a high wind blowin' and the stars are shining bright
Oh, what a night, this is gonna be
I think I'll let the world sleep without me
I got one eye open, one eye closed
And my thin body's trembling beneath the bed clothes
My hearts beatin' against the roof of my mouth
It's almost time to get out of this house

I got one hand on the radio, one hand on the wheel
I got my right foot on the floorboard, I'm preparing to kill or be killed

There's a high wind blowin' and the stars are shinin' bright
And the rain upon the tarmac
Helps me sail through the traffic lights
I'm heading down to the dock of the bay
To feel the power of the waves
I'm gonna move up close to that wind
Wrestle with the thoughts solitude always brings

You see I'm stuck between hell and the deep blue sea
And I know that water's sucked under better man than me
I was just another western guy
With desires that couldn't be satisfied
One day, I asked the angels for inspiration
The devil bought me a drink
He's been buying them ever since

He's had the liquor on my tongue, feel like the sea upon the sand
He's had me signing confessions from this shakin' hand
He's had me struggling to hang onto hope
Like a drunken sailor in a tugboat
With a bottle of vodka in my overcoat
My dog heared Bible lost overboard

You see he tricked me into temptation
So I've tricked him into this confrontation
I never said I was the man I appeared to be
Not the flesh wrapped around the bones of necessity
Or the soul on fire scribbling thoughts for posterity

I'm gonna have little Lucifer runnin' off to purgatory
With his tail between his legs
I'm gonna teach him a lesson he ain't ever gonna forget
All the vultures and crows are fixin' up some tombstones
They won't be chewing the meat off my bones

There's a high wind blowin' and the stars are shining bright
Me and him are gonna have a little knife fight
In the bowels of the big city skyline
Oh, this feelin' inside runs dark and deep
Tonight my hearts not thumping, a mercy beat

Yeah, I was just another western guy
With desires that couldn't be satisfied
Oh, what a night this is gonna be
The world will sleep without me
What a night this is gonna be
The world will sleep without me
What a night, this is gonna be
The world will sleep without me, yeah