Terry Malloy
by Willie Murphy
A glistenin' pompadour
Screamin' to the beat of a thousand years
It ain't real
This gray world ain't real
A hip slung guitar with a slicked back stare
His face in a sneer and he says
Hey you there -can you feel?
Lord, can you feel?
A reelin' and a rockin' duck walkin' bad man
With a guitar and a band gonna tell me how to live in the zoo
And Terry Malloy, it was you all the time
It was you
I was standin' on the corner in my refrigerator hat
I was readin' St. Jack -he was tellin' me to open my eyes
He said life is a prize
The wicked one shouted to the hypnotic boom
In a pot-smoked room I was sexualized
Love realized
The Cannonballs and Tranes, man they loosened my brain
Put the rhythm in my veins
Introduced me to a new attitude
And Johnny, my boy, it was you all the time
It was you
There's other songs about the years in between
What can I say?
It all just seems like a dream
Now I'm in a place I never knew existed
Where I count up my moments and I try to resist it
The time
I can't fight the time
And I lie in my bed tryin' to fall asleep
And all I can think of is the appointment I must keep
In my time
I can't fight the time
But in the morning mirror
A face with a sneer screams to the beat of a thousand years
Can you feel?
No, it ain't real
But what's that I hear in the back of my head?
It's Terry Malloy
He laughs and he says
Willie, my boy, it was you all the time
It's just you
