Baez Joan Play Me Backwards Lyrics

Play Me Backwards Lyrics

You don't have to play me backwards to get the meaning of my verse

 You don't have to die and go to hell to feel the devil's curse

 

 Well, I thought my life was a photograph on a family Christmas card

 Kids all dressed in buttons and bows and lined up in the yard

 Were the golden days of childhood so lyrical and warm

 Or did the picture start to fade on the day that I was born?

 

 I've seen them light the candles and I've heard them bang the drum

 And I've cried, Mama Mama I'm cold as ice and I got no place to run

 

 Let the night begin, there's a pop of skin and the sudden rush of scarlet

 There's a little boy riding on a goat's head and a little girl playing the 

 harlot

 There's a sacrifice in an empty church of sweet li'l baby Rose

 And a man in a mask from Mexico is peeling off my clothes

 

 I've seen them light the candles and I've heard them bang the drum

 And I've cried, Mama Mama I'm cold as ice and I got no place to run

 

 So I'm paying for protection, smoking out the truth

 Chasing recollections, nailing down the proof

 

 You don't have to play me backwards to get the meaning of my verse

 You don't have to die and go to hell to feel the devil's curse

 I'll stand before your altar and tell everything I know

 I've come to claim my childhood at the chapel of baby Rose.

 

 I've seen them light the candles and I've heard them bang the drum

 And I've cried, Mama Mama I'm cold as ice and I got no place to run