INTRO:    It was my first night in that roomin` house    in the last room down the hall.    I heard a hoarse voice and an old guitar   comin` through the paper thin walls.     A crazy nonsense nursery rhyme    it did not mean a thing.    But for the first of what was to be a thousand times   this is what I heard him sing.         Hold that "              Drop it       `till the "A" chord rolls back home around to ">."    I had to lay there listening it seemed he was in the room.    The stranger with the melodies singin` there in the gloom.    And he repeated it over and over again such a soft and sinking sound.    It was kind of like a music box that was slowly windin` down.    And he sang it he hummed it he whistled it and he strummed it.    He laughed it and he cried it.  He did anything but hide it.                  Hold that "              Drop it       `till the "und to me.    So I lay there in that lumpy bed counted Choruses instead of sheep    `till I banged on the wall and out I called "Hey bub I need some sleep."        stop pattern just base                A sudden void of silence then I heard that hoarse voice say                                                    resume pattern        "It weren`t so long ago boy they paid me to play.    So I said "It`s kind of late for music sir.  Two hours `till it`s daylight."    He answered "I need my music most in these dark hours of the night.    You see I`ve tried gettin` high on somethin` son; it only brings me down.    Stayin` dry don`t work out better boy `cause my eyes get wet and I drown.    Won`t you please let me continue and I`ll be in your debt.    You see I`m not singin` to remember son.  I`m just   singin` to forget.           Hold that "D" chord on the old guitar             `till I find the "G."         Drop it down to old "E" minor                                                        strum   strum           `till the "A" chord rolls back home around to me.    That`s when I said if I`m supposed to listen to you sir   one quick question then.   Why in the hell do you sing one song over and over again?     spoken  And this is what he said.             I gave her the music son.  She gave me the words.    Together we`d write the kinds of songs the angels must have heard.    Of course we`d fight like cats and dogs; life ain`t no rosebud dream.    Still where ever we`d go everybody`d know we were truly a team.    I can`t remember now if I`d done her wrong or if she`d done wrong to me.    Still all I know is when I let her go it did not set me free.    That`s when I said "You sound like what`s-his-name."    He said "That`s who I am.    But you can`t wrap a name around you boy    `cause it really don`t mean a damn.    You see a song don`t have no meanin` when it don`t have nothin` to say.    What she could do was magic son.  All I can do is play.           He started singin` again that`s when I drifted off    and maybe I`d dreamed what I`d heard    about the stranger with the melodies    who`d gone and lost the words.         Hold that "D" chord on the old guitar                Drop it down to old "E" minor                                                            final          `till the "A" chord rolls back home around to "."