"Fare Thee Well"

                                               Fare THEE WELL

      

It’s John Savlove’s tribute to the Grateful Dead

as sung to Steely Dan’s version of Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley’s

“East St. Louis Toodle-oo”

Fare thee well

You can’t tell

When upon the wheel we may meet again

Roll them bones

Sing me home

Ride me on your wagon to the wind

The barroom scuffle and the poolhall tiff

While I’m in the corner working on a riff

Don’t shoot me I’m a beginner! – one day to be a winner-

I’ll pay you back further on down the line if

Stagger Lee

Would let me be

The Candy Man and me make three

Cut my deck to the queen of spades

But the cards are all marked everywhere in Chez Hades

You might as well living in the cold dark hollow coalmines

Tell the queen of diamonds by the way she shines

There’s nothing better than a ripple in a creek from

A giant sober footfall

That can put me on the first train out of my

drunken enchantment with jacks, clubs, kings

stains on the barroom floor that speak of secret things

Half a cup of rock and rye

We’ll all know, bye and bye

girls in scarlet magnificent clothes

with bells on their toes!

If memory serves me well, we’re sure to meet further on down the road

Provided your wheel does not light on fire, and you do not explode

Fare thee well

You just can’t tell

Where upon the wheel we’ll meet again