DON’T GET TOO FALLEN

DON’T GET
TOO FALLEN

John Simon and The Band have been going around in my head of late. Been listening to their first album, it’s
spectacular. John produced my third album Now is Heaven and once suggested to Levon Helm in front of me,
in Levon’s Woodstock cabin, that they should cover “Moonbeam Josephine,” a song from that album. I don’t
know what Levon thought, and I had no idea that John was going to do that, wish he hadn’t done it while I
was there. In a way I wanted “‘Don’t Get Too Fallen” to sound something like The Band. I believe you can hear
that Gerry, Tony, and Yuval are of that standard, and Héctor recorded it with that timbre, without me saying so
to anyone, not even myself, at the time.

Cool down let it blow on to another part of town

Don’t get too fallen on the hard times
When they come

Down along the West Side Highway we sped
In the poorly sprung cab with the Gypsy Reg
Going home after drinking all night in Harlem
Slabs of ice water floating past
A tug boat pulled a barge of trash
A forfeited day, while running away
From the hard times

Don’t get too fallen on the hard times
When they come

I found myself envying everyone and everything
The tug boat pilot and the earnest intent
Of the drivers sat in the next lane
All for their right to deserve this day
I think of my past
Sunday mass
Fields of grass
And resign in guilt to the dark clouds

Don’t get too fallen on the dark clouds
When they come

Just like the darkest clouds
Filled with cumulus rain
Nothing stays in the same place
Or can lay claim
Don’t reach up and bring it down
Let it blow on to another part of town
Don’t get too fallen on the dark sword