Man in the Long Black Coat

Crickets are chirpin' the water is high

There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry

Window wide open African trees

Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze

Not a word of goodbye not even a note

She gone with the man in the long black coat

Somebody seen him hangin' around

At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town

He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask

If he wanted to dance he had a face like a mask

Somebody said from the bible he'd quote

There was dust on the man in the long black coat

Preacher was talking there's a sermon he gave

He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved

You cannot depend on it to be your guide

When it's you who must keep it satisfied

It ain't easy to swallow it sticks in the throat

She gave her heart to the man in the long black coat

There are no mistakes in life some people say

It is true sometimes you can see it that way

But people don't live or die people just float

She went with the man in the long black coat

There's smoke on the water it's been there since June

Tree trunks uprooted beneath the high crescent moon

With a pulse and vibration and a rumbling force

Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse

She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote

She gone with the man in the long black coat