Lyrics Christabel - Robert Earl Keen

Christabel

It’s been seven long days and seven hard nights
In a '62 Chevy with broke taillights
An east-bound man in a west-bound lane
A dishwater blonde about sixteen
Was standing on the shoulder with a ribbon in her hair
Her hand on her hip and her thumb in the air
And I pulled off the road and as she grabbed for the door
I knew the wind was cold 'cause I’d seen it all before
And I was scared
Things ain’t never what they seem
When you find you livin' in your own dream
Now the moonlight peeked in and out behind the clouds
Now and again on this godless child
And the radio was scrambed, cracklin' in the air
The ribbon she wore looked old in her hair
And I saw the moonlight sliver dead down on her face
I knew it was true, she was in the wrong place
In the wrong time, in the wrong tale
I knew when I’d asked her she’d hiss, «Christabel»
Things ain’t never what they seem
When you find you livin' in your own dream
She was after the man who had left her alone
With no father beside her and love longtime gone
And the snake deep inside her, a hiss in her head
The rest that had been her was dying or dead
And she’d a taste for young women with pearly white skin
She spat on the floor when she spoke of the man
Who made her like this, who had written her tale
This medieval maid they called «Christabel»
Things ain’t never what they seem
When you find you livin' in your own dream
Then she breathed out the story of her lover-to-be
A knight shining armor on a silvery steed
Who longed to be worthy so he sought the crusade
While she waited, breath bated, in linen brocade
But a pair of black eyes wove 'round her a spell
The snake they call Lydia seduced Christabel
And she cuddled her tender, she poisoned her soul
She stole her young body and made it her own
Things ain’t never what they seem
When you find you livin' in your own dream
Now the knight would love Lydia in Christabel’s arms
And Lydia would have it should he ever return
But Lydia was left with the story undone
No silvery steed, no castle, no throne
Half-woman, half-serpent entwined in a spell
A barge black and fancy this medieval tale
And she faded at dawning, the bird and the beast
Deep in the dreams of those bound for the east
Like me
Things ain’t never what they seem
When you find you livin' in your own dream
Things ain’t never what they seem