text: Well you can buy me a drink and Ill tell you what Ive seen
  And Ill give you a bargain from the edge of a maniacs dream
  That buys a black widow spider with a riddle in his yarn
  Thats clinging to the furrow of a blind mans brow
  And Ill start talking from the brim of a thimble full of whiskey
  On a train through the Bronx that will take you just as far
  As the empty of a bottle to the highway of a scar
  That stretched across the blacktop of my cheek like that
  And then ducks beneath the brim of a fugitives hat
  Youll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face
  That ever left a shadow down on Saint Marks place
  Hell Id double-cross my mother if it was whiskey that they paid
  And so an early bird says Nightsticks on the hit parade
  And he aint got a prayer and his days are numbered
  And youll track him down like a dog
  But its a tough customer youre getting in this trade
  Cause the Nightsticks heart pumps lemonade
  And whiskey keeps a blind man talking all right
  And Im the only one who knows just where he stayed last night
  He was in a wrecking yard in a switchblade storm
  In a wheelbarrow with nothing but revenge to keep him warm
  And a half a million dollars in unmarked bills
  Was the nightsticks blanket in a February chill
  And the buzzards drove a crooked sky beneath a black wing halo
  He was dealing high Chicago in the mud
  And stacking the deck against a dragnets eye
  And the shivering nightstick in a miserable heap
  With the siren for a lullaby singing him to sleep
  And bleeding from a buttonhole and torn by a slug
  Fired from the barrel of a two dollar gun
  That scorched a blister on the grip of a punk by now
  Is learning what you have to pay to be a hero anyhow
  He dressed the hole in his gut with a hundred dollar bandage
  A kings ransom for a bedspread that dont amount to nothing
  Just cobweb strings on a busted ukulele
  And the nightstick leaned on a black shillelagh
  With the poison of a junkies broken promise on his lip
  He staggered in the shadows screaming I aint never been afraid
  And he shot out every street light on the promenade
  Past the frozen ham and eggers at the penny arcade
  Throwing out handfuls of a blood stained salary
  They were dead in their tracks at the shooting gallery
  And they fired off a twenty-one gun salute
  And from the corner of his eye he caught the alabaster orbs
  Of a dime a dance hall girl and stuffed a thousand dollar bill in her blouse
  And caught the cruel and unusual punishment of her smile
  And the nightstick winked beneath a rain soaked brim
  Aint no one seen hide nor hair of him since
  No one except a spade on Rikers Island and me
  So if youre mad enough to listen to a full of whiskey blind man
  And youre mad enough to look beyond where the bloodhounds dare to go
  And if you want to know where the nightsticks hiding out
  You be down at the ferry landing oh lets say about half past a nightmare
  When its twisted on the clock and you tell them nickel sent you
  Whiskey always makes him talk
  And you ask for Captain Charon with the mud on his kicks
  Hes the skipper of the deadline steamer
  And she sails from the Bronx across the river Styx
  And a riddle is just a ticket for a dreamer
  Cause when the weathervane is sleeping and the moon turns his back
  You crawl on your belly along the railroad tracks
  And cross your heart and hope to die and stick a needle in your eye
  Cause hed cut my bleeding heart out if he found out that I squealed
  Cause you see a scarecrow is just a hoodlum
  Who marked the cards that he dealed
  And pulled a gypsy switch
  Out on the edge of Potters Field