(note: this song changes with every version...this version is from 5-13-94, when it was brought back after a two-year absence, at the aragon ballroom, in chicago)
Rock and roll!
Well I’ve been around this world and I’ll tell you some things
There ain’t no free lunches, you gotta watch for the strings
You stand up for your rights and then you try to hold your ground
But only lady luck determines if you’re up or you’re down
Oh faith in my friend and faith in my brother
And faith in my life, I don’t know no other
You try to stay happy, you try to stay sane
You get a little pleasure and you get a little pain
You grab the brass ring, you know you’ve gotta try
You keep right on a-grabbing until the day you die
Life’s a big gamble, you have to work on yet
It’s a big card shuffle, you gave what you could get
You get your joy, you get to have your blows,
And where she stops, nobody knows
And so it goes...and so it goes...
I could tell you scary stories; I could tell you some lies
It’ll take much more than that for me to open your eyes
So go anywhere you want to; do whatever you choose
And only lady luck determines if you win or you lose...
Oh faith in my friend and faith in my brother
And faith in my life, I don’t know no other
You try to stay happy, you try to stay sane
You get a little pleasure and you get a little pain
You grab the brass ring, you know you’ve gotta try
You keep right on a-grabbing until the day you die
Life’s a big gamble, you have to work on yet
It’s a big card shuffle, you gave what you could get
You get your joy, you get to have your blows,
And where she stops, nobody knows
And so it goes...and so it goes...
(spoken)
"do you know what I love about having this microphone in front of my face where I’ve got this groove going on behind me all solid and smooth? well, I’ll tell you. through the miracle of rock and roll, I can say absolutely anything, anything at all that will make some kind of sense in some poetic way to somebody, somehow, somewhere. observe closely...hark! what light through yon window breaks? kids who live in glass houses should learn to draw rakes. them that takes cakes that the parsee man bakes makes dreadful mistakes. and those that think we can’t do chicago are big lousy fakes."
"i don’t have to explain it; I just gotta make it up...oh, I guess I should play now."
"how is everybody feeling? you know, we’re feeling so good, we’re gonna hit it for you one time (1 hit). ho! ho! ho! ha! eh! we feel so good, we’re gonna hit it for you seven times (7 hits). this isn’t something you get every day, this is interdimensional, cross-rip timekeeping. okay...this has never been done before...we’re gonna hit it for you 13 times in honor of friday the 13th. (13 hits) that felt pretty good! you know, I’m afraid we’re going to have to hit it for you 67 times. (67
Hits)"
"okay...all right now...you guys have been such a wonderful audience...we’d be terribly remiss if we didn’t teach you a little something...the incredible masculine and feminine dance of awesome and articulate power...the dance that wowed them in nigeria in the early 1800’s...a dance that wowed them in the beaches of the usa in 1965...that’s right, I’m talking about the one, the only, wobbling surfer. now, in order to demonstrate this dance of incredible awesome power, you need a lot of people; you need a line, as a matter of fact. this has been a dance that has been banned from most line-dancing establishments, most of your country/western line-dancing establishments have not had this dance in their bar because it causes nudity and profane language. but to demonstrate this dance, we’re going to use the world famous blues traveler stage crew. stage crew, please report, in uniform! ladies and gentlemen, the virile and masculine, blues traveler stage crew...this one particularly sca
Ry-looking. all right...now wh
At you’ve got to do is you gotta stand sideways...picture yourself on a surfboard...knees slightly bent...arms out at a comfortable distance from the rest of your body, while your torso remains attached to your head, using the eyebrows to support the lower lumbar signal angle of your forehead, try and imagine yourself on a surfboard, and you’re deep, deep, deep in the mediterranean ocean, and there’s libyan terrorists on the left of you, sharks on the right of you, and you have to wobble, wobble, wobble your way to a safer, trimmer you. now I’d like to point out that several doctors had to operate on my leg to make it safe for me to do the wobbling surfer. but never before has this been attempted...this jump could very well kill all the people onstage - we don’t know because there’s petroleum-based alloys in my leg that could possibly explode into a ball of fire! but we’re going to try it for you this one time; we’re going to try it for you now, we’re gonna do it, and we don’t know ho
W - ladies and gentlemen,
The wobbling surfer, for you, presented for your viewing pleasure...1, 2, 1, 2, 3, surf! go for the jump!"
Oh faith in my friend and faith in my brother
And faith in my life, I don’t know no other
You try to stay happy, you try to stay sane
You get a little pleasure and you get a little pain
You grab the brass ring, you know you’ve gotta try
You keep right on a-grabbing until the day you die
Life’s a big gamble, you have to work on yet
It’s a big card shuffle, you gave what you could get
You get your joy, you get to have your blows,
And where she stops, nobody knows
And so it goes...and so it goes...
"if only my aunt sylvia could see me now..."
