Goodbye Jimmy Reed

I live on a street named after a Saint

Women in the churches wear powder and paint

Where the Jews and Catholics and the Muslim all pray

I can tell they're praying from a mile away

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed

Give me that old time religion, it's just what I need

For thine is kingdom, the power, the glory

Go tell it down the mountain, go tell the real story

Tell it in that straightforward, puritanical tone

In the mystic hours when a person's alone

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, godspeed

Thump on the bible, proclaim a creed

You won't amount to much, the people all said

'Cause I didn't play guitar behind my head

Never pandered, never acted proud

Never took of my shoes, throw 'em in the crowd

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, goodnight

Put a jewel in your crown and put out the lights

They threw everything at me, everything in the book

I had nothing to fight with but a butcher's hook

They had no pity, they never lend a hand

I can't sing a song that I don't understand

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, good luck

I can't play the record 'cause my needle got stuck

Transparent woman in a transparent dress

Suits you well, I must confess

I'll break open your grapes, I'll suck out the juice

I need you like my head needs a noose

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye and so long

I thought I could resist her but I was so wrong

God be with you, brother dear

If you don't mind me asking what brings you here?

Oh, nothing much, I'm just looking for the man

Need to see where he's lying in this lost land

Goodbye Jimmy Reed, and everything within ya

Can't you hear me calling from down in Virginia?