Phil Ochs & Elvis Eating Lunch in Morrison's Cafe lyrics

When she came and sat behind me

I knew something wasn't right

The dye had washed out of her hair

Her face was pale and white

And the legs she shambled in on

Beneath her shabby dress

Were wearing alligator shoes

And socks from MLS

A man sat down beside her

He looked familiar too

Like a Greenwich Village poet

Circa 1962

Dressed from head to toe in corduroy

Wayfarers on his head

Ignoring one another

Just like both of them were dead

There but for fortune

And common sense, they say

Phil Ochs and Elvis eating lunch

In Morrison's Cafe

In her wraparound dark glasses

With the light adjusting lens

She was hiding more than tired eyes

From onlookers and friends

There was something in those fingers

That worked the forks and knives

As if they'd once worked magic in

Other people's lives

There but for fortune

And common sense, they say

Phil Ochs and Elvis eating lunch

In Morrison's Cafe

I tried to move in closer

There was a smell of Vaseline

And the scent of faded legends

Just off the M18

For a moment life seemed simple

Fear and pain were swept away

When Phil and Elvis ate their lunch

In Morrison's Cafe

There but for fortune

And common sense, they say

Phil Ochs and Elvis eating lunch

In Morrison's Cafe

There but for fortune

And common sense, they say

Phil Ochs and Elvis eating lunch

In Morrison's Cafe