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Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts
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Joan Baez
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1
The festival was over, the boys were all planning for a fall,
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The cabaret was quiet except for the drilling in the wall.
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The curfew had been lifted and the gambling wheel shut down,
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Anyone with any sense had already left town.
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He was standing in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.
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He moved across the mirrored room, Set it 'em for everyone, he said,
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Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he moved their heads.
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Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,
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Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?
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Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts.
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Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs,
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Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.
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Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide,
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A gentle breeze was blowing, you could feel it from inside.
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Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.
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Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine,
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He made his usual entrance lookin' oh so dandy and so fine.
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With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place,
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He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste.
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But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.
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Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,
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She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown.
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She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear,
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Sorry, darlin', that I'm late, but he didn't seem to hear.
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He was staring into space over at the Jack of Hearts.
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I know I've seen that face before, Big Jim was thinkin' to himself,
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Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf.
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But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
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And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him,
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Staring at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child,
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She did whatever she had to do, it was a kind of a flash every time she smiled.
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She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
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With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere.
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But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.
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The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,
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The drilling in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.
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It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
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And nothin' would ever come between Lily and the king.
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No, nothing ever would 'cept maybe the Jack of Hearts.
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Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife,
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She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife.
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She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide,
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Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died.
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She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away.
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Has your luck run out? she laughed at him, Well, I guess you must
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Have known it would someday.
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Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint,
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I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint.
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Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.
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The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair.
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There's something funny going on, I know, I can just feel it in the air.
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He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,
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And the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.
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There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily's had her arms around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
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She forgot all about the man she hated, who hounded her so much.
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I've missed you so, she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
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But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
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Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.
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No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick,
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The door to the dressing room burst open and a cold revolver clicked.
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And Big Jim was standin' there, you couldn't say surprised,
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Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes.
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She was with Big Jim but she was leanin' to the Jack of Hearts.
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Two doors down and the boys finally made it through the wall
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Cleaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haul.
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In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
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For one more member who had business back in town.
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But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.
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Well the next day was hangin' day, and the sky was overcast and black,
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Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back.
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And Rosemary on the gallows, boy, she didn't even blink,
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The hangin' judge was sober, Lord, he hadn't had a drink.
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The only person on the scene missing was the Jack of Hearts.
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The cabaret was quiet now, a sign said, Closed for repair,
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Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair.
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She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw,
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Thinkin' about Rosemary and thinkin' about the law.
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But, most of all she was thinkin' about the Jack of Hearts.
Bob Dylan - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack ...
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