Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Robert Hunter
Hunter gives the following background in Box Of Rain:
"The general direction of this lyric was conceived on the occasion of the first California execution in decades, under Governor Wilson, which happened in 1992 at San Quentin. I'd been canoeing every day on the Richmond Bay, right outside the prison, during the days leading up to the outrage, and the mounting tension around the Victorian fortress was darkly palpable. The original notion of the lyric was thought up earlier, in response to a query from Oliver Stone about the Grateful Dead doing music for the end credits of JFK, the filming of which had just been completed. The deadline was too imminent, so it went by the boards. This version is something of a palimpsest: bits of the originating heme can be detected here and there."Lyrics:
Some of these days/Mama told you soBackground
You wouldn't listen but now you know
Some of these days/Daddy told you too
but you didn't care what anyone said
and that was the trouble with you
Some of these days/I gave my best advice
Sister told you once but she don't speak twice
Some of these days/Deuce is hard to play
Shake, rattle or roll, there's just one way
Sent you a letter and the letter it read
Shine a little bit of light on me
I been twisting here in the wind
every which way but free
Lay a little of the load on you
if only for company
We got nothing better to do
till the end of the century
Some of these days/Well it's like they say
You play the part but the part don't play
Some of these days/Through a purple haze
you'll look upon your wayward son
and recognize the man you raised
Some of these days/can't go it alone
black-blood rays on waves of stone
Some of these days/hard to tell from night
Seven shades of greay, lonely for the light
Back when you were a sweet little child
when time was so precious and long
everyone told you what was what
it could've been they got it wrong
You weren't brought up to misbehave
but your aptitudes ran that way
Now as the hours till daybreak fall
the courts have nothing to say
Some of these days/runnin' low on time
Some of these days/got the nerve to shine
Some of these days/put your hand in mine
help me up and over this wall
it's a little too high to climb
I don't know if my ticket's still good
been punched so often before
once on a train that was glory bound
from Dallas to forevermore
Once upon a time in Babylon
in the case of a televised war
Again as the cyanide pellets drop
in the tank with the little green door
Some of these days/screw your head on right
Some of these days/hard to tell from night
Some of these days/flight by silver flight
dead men walk on diamond stairs
where the moonlight beckons bright
Some of these days/these days so long
evening delivers up a morning song
Some of these days/catch a falling star
carry it home to me in a Mason jar
I been sitting here all night long
with a pencil and my guitar
Sometimes a line pops into my head
to the tune of a passing car
Sometimes I just stare down the wall
or listen to the radio
An execution is due at dawn
about five miles down the road
Some of these days/deuce is hard to play
shake, rattle or roll, there's about one way
Some of these days/the spots drop off the dice
Faceless cubes melt in your hand
Can't roll again at any price
Some of these days/it could be today
Nothing adds up in the same old way
Some of these days/you just go for broke
Ride on the flames, skate along on smoke
My number's been up for a long long while
Got my bag all packed to go
Walk in Jerusalem just like John
with a shotgun and a bow
Got no use for ingenues
and the jaded are too passé
wondering whether to pcik and choose
or wait until the judgement day
Some of these days/spot on the verge of ruin
take what you saved and shoot the moon
Some of these days/in your fond embrace
drink my way through a bucket of tears
with a smile upon my face
Some of these days/win, lose or draw
stand up in court and fight the law
Some of these days/adjudicate the rules
disarm the devil and protect the fools
Sent a letter to the rose of dawn
Sent it special delivery
In anticipation of her reply
I try to keep my options free
Kiss my back 'cause I'm long gone
in spats in a bulletproof vest
across the waters of the great beyond
to my home back in the west
Some of these days/gonna learn its ways
Some of these days/let me paraphrase
Some of these days/if such days there be
Chew the lock off the latch and walk on out
when there's no one watching me
Some of these days/the fool my mother raised
will step right up into the heart of light
from the valley of the shadow amazed
Some of these days ...
"The general direction of this lyric was conceived on the occasion of the first California execution in decades, under Governor Wilson, which happened in 1992 at San Quentin. I'd been canoeing every day on the Richmond Bay, right outside the prison, during the days leading up to the outrage, and the mounting tension around the Victorian fortress was darkly palpable. The original notion of the lyric was thought up earlier, in response to a query from Oliver Stone about the Grateful Dead doing music for the end credits of JFK, the filming of which had just been completed. The deadline was too imminent, so it went by the boards. This version is somehwat of a palimpsest: bits of the originating theme can be detected here and there."