Bought a house from a man in New York

This house had four small apartments in it

When he got it in '78

Said he had seen children grow old

And elderly people die in each little apartment

Said he didn't change the wooden floors for sixteen years

'Cause he knew where the scuff came from

We talked for a bit and he took me around the corner

And told me everything had gone down, down stream from him

Like that cold water of his life had gone up his back

Down his front, and around his legs

And before he could drink any of it

It'd already passed him by

I went home after drinkin' with him a bit

Made a pallet and a fire on the floor

And closed my eyes right there

In the middle of one of the coldest nights

Manhattan had seen all winter

I imagined my dog Jack and me back home

Cuttin' through some Oklahoman landscape

With greens, moisture, and heat and finding some screen

Right there in the clearin'

He jumped, chasin' something naturally

And I just let that water run past my shoulders

Under my neck and under my feet

And down, down stream

Every good and bad thing that ever happend to me

Floating down, down stream

They're just floatin', the Tulsa bars

And all the throw up in 'em, the ducks we killed

The fights we had

The New York 3ams, the piano through my neighbors wall

And the Italian restaurant voices mashin' together

Through the opposite one

My mother's couch that I sang her songs on

The African desert heat, runnin' from the police

And my father's swollen pride

They're just floatin' by, every woman I have ever loved

And every man I have ever called a brother

The New Year's fireworks and the July Fourth's too

Every failure and every ugly, little victory

Screamin' off the Grand Canyon

And hearin' one of my best friends

Have gotten into a wreck under some cold, dark western sky

My sister laughin', the streets of London

And my band playin' sweet notes

In front of a hundred thousand people

I took a big gulp and I wondered if all that water

Led to more streams and those led

To some big ocean somewhere

Prayed all that suffering and all those belly laughs

Led to some big ocean somewhere

As soon as I took that big gulp

My eyes opened to a fire in that livin' room

And the fire department came

And hydrant filthy New York water

Was goin' up my back

Down my front and down, down stream

And so were we