I've got the shingle shirt blew-ew-ew-ews
I've got the shingle shirt blues
Which one should I choose?
Something airy and loose
I've got the shingle shirt blues

I am in so much pay-ay-ay-ayn
I am in so much pain
I don't want this again
Like I've been hit by a train
I am in so much pain

It's like the worst sunburn
All around my core
Rubbed with a cheese grater
And then, just a little more

Lemon juice and vinegar
Wiped down upon the rash
I wouldn't wish this on my enemy
Not for all the world's cash

I've got the shingle shirt blew-ew-ew-ews
I've got the shingle shirt blues
Which one should I choose?
Something airy and loose
I've got the shingle shirt blues

It's a pain just to sle-ee-ee-eep
There's no way to sleep deep
If I move just a peep
Off a cliff I will leap
It's a pain just to sleep

I've got the shingle shirt blew-ew-ew-ew ews
I've got the shingle shirt blues
I have got some good news
My Jimmy Buffet fits loose
I've got the shingle shirt blues.

Are you King?
or are you Queen?
Which one of these are you?
Or, are you someone else instead?
Are you someone new?

Do you play the intellect?
Are you smarter than the rest?
If you are the intellect
What makes you the best?

Is your role the writer?
Putting words upon a page
Or, maybe you're an actor
Portraying characters on stage

Whichever one you choose to be
Always play it well
Is what you are a secret?
One you'll never tell

I can't play an instrument
A musician I'll not be
My brain won't work with science
A doctor, that's not me

At times I have played many roles
Sometimes, way back in school
I lost myself for a short time
And in the end, I played the fool

There are many roles that you will play
As you work your way through life
Husband, brother, father
Mother, daughter, wife

No matter which you choose to play
The fool is only one
Story teller, wordsmith
Make sure that you have fun

So, in the morning sunshine
Ask yourself "who shall I play?"
A new one, or an old one?
Just who am I today?

There is a tale so very old
Of an ancient Fairy King
Older than the world we know
Named Ochna-amadring

He's not been seen for many years
No-one knows if he is dead
There are clues about him though
This is how the legend has been fed

He was present when King Arthur
Took the sword out of the stone
Arthur, he was special
But, could not do that alone

His magic is eternal
He rules the fairy world and more
No one knows if he is living
Or what he has in store

He lives deep in the English woods
That is what they say
It is there that he met Merlin
And Morgan Le Fay

He's lived a thousand lifetimes
Or two, nobody knows
He sailed here with the Vikings
To escape the northern snow

You see his painted magic
Every year upon the leaves
The colors ever changing
Quite a tapestry he weaves

He has many fairy children
Not as cunning or as wise
They are seen by many people
They don't hide from mortal eyes

The Fairy Elder is a legend
Is he real or just a tale
Many search to find him
And in the end, they always fail

Leave the magic for the fairies
Never ask exactly how
The fairy magic is accomplished
Shh...he may be near you now

i march to my own drummer
i lead my own parade
i do not travel other's paths
i go on one i made

i move in my own orbit
i'm at least two notes off key
i fill in words i make up
okay, then maybe three

If I am not  what you want
And you think that I am strange
It doesn't bother me at all
Don't try to make me change

I laugh when others near me don't
It doesn't matter what you see
I'm not that different in the end
I'm no-one else, I'm just me

I know my shirt in inside out
Or is it really outside in?
At least I have a shirt to wear
So, to me that is a win

As I have aged, I've changed a bit
All I ask is leave me be
You can do just what you want
I'll understand, cause I'm just me

It doesn't matter who you are
Just let me live my life
You shouldn't care how I hold my fork
Or in which hand I hold my knife

I march to my own drummer
Sometimes I go and yell at trees
I like my world the way it is
I'm not you, I'm just me

It's been forty three years since that night
when i went out to do what's right
Something that I've kept inside since then

People searched but never found
They followed my prints on the ground
Never looking for anyone else, but men

I'm the one who shot him dead
Two bullets shot, and then I fled
Now it's time to tell my tale 'bout then

It was the night the lights went out in Georgia
It was the night that they hung an innocent man
Don't trust your soul to no back woods southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands

They looked high, and they looked low
followed my prints in the snow
Never caring if he did the crime

They hung my brother from a tree
The one who should have died was me
I've never left, I've been here all the time

I guess what goes around comes around
The judge is now dust in the ground
The sheriff, he is also long time dead

It was the night the lights went out in Georgia
It was the night that they hung an innocent man
Don't trust your soul to no back woods southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands

It's been a long, long time since Andy died
Rivers of tears that I have cried
But in the end I can' change what was done

Cause Andy's cheating wife never left town
And her body has never been found
Cause this little sister don't miss when she aims her gun

It was the night the lights went out in Georgia
It was the night that they hung an innocent man
Don't trust your soul to no back woods southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands

It was a night like this
Back in old T. O.
When a woman froze to death
In the cold and frigid snow

I passed her in the morning
I saw her laying on the grate
With all she owned around her
I did not then know her state

It was early nineteen eighty one
The polar winds did blow
A woman froze to death that night
In the cold and frigid snow

It was right outside the local "Y"
The doors were locked up tight
She lay upon the heating grates
To make it through the night

Passers by ignored her
They just looked away instead
In the morning when I passed her
I did not know that she was dead

I think back on that image
Of her laying with her stuff
I ask myself "when will we stop"
"and say enough's enough"

The homeless are not garbage
Disposable, their not
A woman froze to death outside
Is this the best we've got?

A woman froze to death one night
And no one seemed to care
Life goes on with her now gone
As though she was not there

Like the woman back on Church Street
In the cold Toronto snow
The image now is frozen
Like the woman in T.O.

can i still call it your birthday
if it's the day you chose to die
I can't guess what you were thinking
I can't begin to even try

I refuse to ask the question
You know, tell me why
can i still call it your birthday
If it's the day you chose to die

It only took a second
to tear my world apart
just the time to pull a trigger
put a hole into my heart

a voice i can't remember
a face from long ago
the person lying dead there
is not the one i know

The choice of what to pick up
The gun or man, the phone
Is one you never thought of
Now, you've left us all alone

Each year upon your birthday
We will toast your name and cry
Can I still call it your birthday
If it's the day you chose to die