Gates of Eden - Live at Philharmonic Hall, New York, NY - October 1964

Of war and peace the truth just twists, its curfew gull it glides
 Upon four-legged forest clouds, the cowboy angel rides
 With his candle lit into the sun, though its glow is waxed in black
 All except when 'neath the trees of Eden
 The lamppost stands with folded arms, its iron claws attached
 To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail, though it shadows metal badge
 All and all can only fall with a crashing but meaningless blow
 No sound ever comes from the gates of Eden
 The savage soldier just sticks his head in sand and then complains
 Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf, but still remains
 Upon the beach where hound dogs bay at ships with tattooed sails
 Heading for the gates of Eden
 With a time-rusted compass blade, Aladdin and his lamp
 Sits with Utopian hermit monks, sidesaddle on the Golden Calf
 And on their promises of paradise, you will not hear a laugh
 All except inside the gates of Eden
 Relationships of ownership, they whisper in the wings
 To those condemned to act accordingly and wait for succeeding kings
 And I try to harmonize with songs the lonesome sparrow sings
 There are no kings inside the gates of Eden
 The motorcycle black Madonna, two-wheeled gypsy queen
 And her silver-studded phantom cause the gray flannel dwarf to scream
 As he weeps to wicked birds of prey who pick upon his bread crumb sins
 There are no sins inside the gates of Eden
 The kingdoms of experience, in the precious winds they rot
 While paupers change possessions, each one wishing for what the other has got
 And the princess and the prince discuss what's real and what is not
 It doesn't matter inside the gates of Eden
 The foreign sun, it squints upon a bed that is never mine
 As friends and other strangers from their fates try to resign
 Leaving men wholly, totally free to do anything they wish to do but die
 And there are no trials inside the gates of Eden
 At dawn my lover comes to me and tells me of her dreams
 With no attempts to shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means
 At times I think there are no words but these to tell what's true
 But there are no truths outside the gates of Eden