Don Johnson Big Band Nightman Lyrics

Saw a man in the street with his fist in the air
Treading along with a quiet limp and a mystery glare
This could be fair he insisted in a whisper and stared
Me down as i passed him, asked him if they missed him and cared
Eyes suspicious, used to being attacked on
The smell of liquor in his breath, he had pride in his backbone
Said i'm just an old man with his life in a shopping cart
This dog is my family and i sleep in the park
But i wasn't always like this, never thought i'd fall this deep
All mystique is long gone, i'm in a hole and my call is weak
But the people just don't listen to a b__ they all mistreat
And it's not easy to climb out when the wall is steep

My mind is spoken
My mind is broken
My mind's been open for too long

There's a light inside still glowing in the kitchen
You walk down the stairs, turn life into fiction
That intersection could be the last turn
And the way you keep beating your heart on fast burn is fatal
Unable to find the right label
For the sudden disappearance of familiar road maps
You got a video-phone-fax and everything you need
But can't hide the truth under a table
So you proceed to the street and find yourself alone
In the freezing cold, under your feet
Is the crackling ice that makes time disappear
Let your eyelids fall, is blindness a fear?
Quiet as the sheer heavy weight that leaves a long shadow
When you're battling back to where you started
The cold hot on your heels appeals to the real sense
You got little that needs to be guarded
So keep that thought and your wheel in motion
All the mirrors are gone, you feel the motion
Of the past getting closer, infinite on this tape
Minute by minute, give it my limit and escape

Is it hot, burning or scorching?
Is it your microphone or did you bring a torch in?
The people keep marching to the beat of a drum
But no voice ringing out for the freedom to run
I don't drop a rhyme, i bleed in my lung
If there's a seed in my tongue, i can't stop it from spreading
The topic of letting you know exactly what i stand for
The mind is in position, and the body is a band for
My music of rebellion is out of hand
I shouted d___, i'm not a man, i'm a civilian
And sometimes the paper needs a heavy stroke
Or just a light touch, and a room full of heavy smoke
Every hope i could have seen in his troubling tries
Would fall down with the force of his suffering eyes
Scuffle and rise from the gutter just to make the people wonder
Where i came from, the rubble of lies
I'm in a tunnel now, in the warm yellow flare
Of the headlights grazing a sky that seemed red
Get stronger, get swallowed by the concrete
I follow the glow, go to sleep under a palm tree

CHORUS

Saw a man in the street and i wasn't aware
Of that familiar look behind his air of despair
Prepare to be scared if you don't know
What's hiding under your stairs
The people you see, but don't hear, we just let them be there
Why be bothered, i was always in the front seat
And who is he to talk to, i know he's trying to front me
Dying slowly, i am only going home
Got to wake up in the morning, got to take it with a lonely groan
But i wasn't always like this, never thought i'd fall this deep
All mystique is long gone, i'm in a hole and my call is weak
Now i know we better find out this before we speak
It's not easy to climb out when the wall is steep

(Words and music: Don Johnson Big Band)