When You Give It Away

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Slid out of my dreams like a baby out of the nurse's hands Onto the hard floor of day I'd been wearing OJ's gloves And I couldn't get them off It was too early, but I couldn't sleep Showered and dressed and stepped out into the heat The parrot things on the porch next door announced my arrival on Chartres Street With their finest rendition of squealing brakes Down at Kaldi's Café the newspaper headlines promised new revelations About Prince Charles' Amex account A morose young man in old-time Austrian drag stared past his long mustache at the floor And last night's punks and fetish kids, all tattoos and metal bits And in the other corner, wearing the white trunks Today's tourists, already sweating [Verse 2] Deep in the city of the saints and fools Pearls before pigs and dung become jewels I sit down with tigers, I sit down with lambs None of them know who exactly I am [Chorus] I've got this thing in my heart I must give you today It only lives when you Give it away [Verse 3] Languid mandala of the ceiling fan Teases the air like a slow stroking hand Study the faces, study the cards Study the shadow creeping over the yard [Chorus] I've got this thing in my heart I must give you today It only lives when you Give it away [Guitar and Organ Duet] [Verse 4] Trouble with the nations, trouble with relations Where you going to go for some illumination? Too much to carry, too much to let go Time goes fast, learning goes slow [Chorus] But I've got this thing in my heart I must give you today It only lives when you Give it away I've got this thing in my heart I must give you today It only lives when you Give it away Give it away