Well Iâll tell you one thing that I know
You donât face you demons down
You got to grab `em, jack `em
And pin `em to the ground
The devil may care âmaybe god he wonât
Better you make sure you check on
The doâs and donâts
Crawl up the mountain
To reach where the eagles fly
Sure you canât glimpse from the mountain top
Where the soul of the muse might rise
And if you put it all together
You wonât have to look around
You know you cast a long shadow on the ground
And then one day I could tell my tracks
By the holes in the soles of my shoes
And thatâs the day I said
Iâm gonna make the news
And falling back in the garden of days so long ago
Somewhere in the memory
The sun shines on you boy
Playing in the Arroyos
Where the American rivers flows
From the Appalachians
Down to the Delta roads
A man can thinks so long
His brain could well explode
Thereâs trains runnin through the junctions
And king cottons down the road
And if you put it all together
You wonât have to look around
You know you cast a long shadow on the ground
Listen to the country, the night jar and the bell
Listen to the the night streamliner
Sounding like the wolves of hell
Head for the water â the waters of the cleansing spell
It was always our destination on the express of the ner do wells
And we rock through Madison city
Man we didnât even know she was there
âtil we hit the baffles in Memphis and Beale Street didnât have no prayer
I hear punks talk of anarchy â I hear hobos on the railroads
I hear mutterings on the chain gangs
Itâs those men who build the roads
And if you put it all together
You didnât even once relent
You cast a long shadow
And that is your testament
Somewhere in my soul
Thereâs always Rock ânâ Roll.
Yeah.
Written by Joe Strummer and Smokey Hormel as a tribute to Johnny Cash, 2004