(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

High John the Conqueror

Laughing at the devil

At his slapstick dignity

And his tolling death knell

His stern contempt

His misogyny

His vertigo

His mendacity

(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

He drew back the curtain

And saw there was no Earth

Nor was there a universe

There was only light

And the sound of mercy

(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

He said, “I’ll go to Heaven when the world’s on fire

I’ll trip over the rose and the briar

I’ll listen to the music in the angel choir”

(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

Where there is no time

And where no one lies

Where there is no crime

Where no one cries

In the land where the soul of a man never dies

(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

High John the Conqueror

Down by the border

Fording the river

Walking across the water

To the very gate of Hell

Where anyone can buy and sell

Anything on which one can dwell

Where the Celebrity-in-Chief comes to grief

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

(Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk)

(Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk)

I was born in Algiers at 12 o’clock at night

The moon wasn’t shining and there wasn’t any light

All the dogs were howling someone’s gone there is no doubt

They don’t know who did it and they can’t find out

I saw a shadow pull off his glove

As a bluebird flew into the dark sky above

Life’s no pleasure unless you’re with the one you love

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

It was way last year when my trouble began

You went to Louisiana to get a mojo hand

And you won’t lift the hex till I’m under your command

I can never go back into the past

For the flood is coming and it’s moving fast

Now you can break your window and look down on the glass

I wanna go home, but I don’t have sufficient clothes

Last time I went down there I nearly froze

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk

I got a girl in Cuba

I got a girl in Spain

I got a girl in Dallas

I’m afraid to call her name

I met a woman there who was vicious and mean

I asked her for a drink of water

She gave me kerosene

I saw her with another man today

He was speaking with her in a personal way

If I don’t leave here, there will be hell to pay

Love make me stutter, make me stutter when I talk

Love make me stagger, make me stagger when I walk