Saw the ghost of Bob Dylan floating there over the sea

It was dark and I was stumbling down deck 3

In that voice of sand and grit the iron joker spoke to me

Said “Maybe now you go get yourself stoned.”

It been three days since I heard any voice of a friend

With no words left to read and no letters left to send

I believed at that moment this might really be the end

But you get that crazy way when you’re alone

And you know I’d like to be there wherever there may be

Because I need now more than ever for you to send your love to me

Now Eddie Ray Howard, he’s my good eye in the storm

And the hurricane it rages in some sad amorphous form

I feel that it’s been coming since the day that I was born

But he says, “Don’t you mind, go and play your trumpet.”

And I know that I should listen and follow his advice

But that would be too easy, too rational, too nice

I’m a sad, neurotic valley with a river full of ice

If there’s a cliff over despair I’m gonna jump it

And you know I’d like to be there wherever there may be

Because I need now more than ever for you to say you pardon me

Now the cattle all line up to taste the bounty of their dreams

When the ship pulls in no one can even fit back in their jeans

The cooks know well enough here not to stock up on the beans

Or the whole damn place would stink like exit fourteen

On the turnpike in New Jersey, yes I know it all too well

I was there the night the license plate was just too far to tell

And the Good Lord sent an angel and he barred the door to hell

To keep me from a life of pain and morphine

And you know I’d like to be there wherever there may be

Because I need now more than anything to know that you are still with me

There’s a message at the terminal and it’s from Eddie Ray

Having now said almost everything he don’t have much to say

He’s busy with his life and trying to live it everyday

I cannot say I blame him or resent him

No I love him like a brother and I think I always will

For what he did for me there ought to be some kind of bill

No doctor from the east could pull me off that window sill

When I was screaming for the sanity I’d lent him

And you know I’d like to be there wherever there may be

Because I need now more than anything for you to save your love for me

There’s a house I thought was heaven with a yard where she plays

Not one day of the year it isn’t hard to be away

And I think of my good fortune and I think of Eddie Ray

Saying, “Don’t you mind, now go and read your Dylan.”

And I wake up in the morning with your aloe on my mind

And everything that’s in between and how you smell like sunshine

And how you made that child an absolute one of a kind

And how you find each hole in me to fill in

There’s a headcase full of love here if you’re willing

And you know I’d like to be there wherever there may be

Because I need now more than ever for you to say you’ll wait for me