October Queen

Lyrics: Bob Weir and Andre Pesses
Music: Bob Weir/Ratdog

One of the Bob Weir originals played by Ratdog - sometimes listed as Tomcat Nights. Now included on the Ratdog CD "Evening Moods" and played by The Dead.

Well, I spend my tomcat nights in New Orleans
Always 'round this red moon time of year
Just let it go, and fall right off the deep end (note 1)
'Cause you sure don't look for soul salvation here

Bars and alleys are running wild with Frat Rats
And your three-piece Bible-belt conventioneers
And your drag queens and your strip bars
And your hazy purple streetlights (note 2)
All steaming up the atmosphere

She always waits for me right down there in the lobby (note 3)
A little shop-worn but sure not the worst I've seen
And I nod across the way to Bon Temps Billy's Black Water Lounge (note 4)
And she nods back, 'cause we both know what that means

She follows me on in like we're both strangers
'Cause I kind of can't afford, y'all, to be seen
She's got that far-off, smokey, leaves-are-falling look in her eyes (note 5)
A true last chance October Queen

And I know it's gonna be one hell of a evening (note 6)
Just like the year before, and the year before, and the year before
Still something about it, something about her
Something that always evades my memory
I don't know what it is
There's so little I recall, little I recall

So we small talk and drink our way through the motions
And then the lights dim for the big show up in my room
On a thread-bare bed with feathers and scented lotions
Like some kind of carnival gin-soaked dream cartoon

Well I guess you can chalk up one more night up for the ages
And I wake up in a haze of sweat and cheap purfume
But she's way long gone, way long gone at the cottonmouth sunrise
And I don't know if it's way too late or way too soon

Down the street, the hose wagon's
Washing last night on down the storm drain (note 7)
And I'm lying here and my head's on fire and my body's flat
Guess it's gonna take a long hot shower or two to wash it away, wash it away
We just won't talk about that

And I think about the life that I'll go back to (note 8)
And the congregation that pays my country club and rent (note 9)
But at 1:55 Delta flight 648 gonna take off and fly (note 10)
And I'll have one more full year to repent

And I bet it was one hell of an evening
Just like the year before, and the year before, and the year before
Still there's something about it, something about her
Something always evades my memory
I don't know what it is
There's so little I recall, little I recall

Something about, something about her
Something about, something about her
Something about, something about her
Something about, something about her
[etc]