(Bob Dylan)
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The festival was over, the boys were all plannin' for a fall,
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The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall.
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The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down,
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Anyone with any sense had already left town.
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He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.
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He moved across the mirrored room, "Set it up for everyone," he said,
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Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads.
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Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,
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"Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?"
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Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts.
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Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs,
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Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.
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Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide,
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A gentle breeze was blowin', you could feel it from inside.
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Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.
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Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine,
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He made his usual entrance lookin' so dandy and so fine.
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With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place,
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He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste.
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But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.
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Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,
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She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown.
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She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear,
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"Sorry, darlin', that I'm late," but he didn't seem to hear.
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He was starin' into space over at the Jack of Hearts.
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"I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinkin' to himself,
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"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf."
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But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
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And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him,
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Starin' at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child,
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She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled.
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She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
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With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere.
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But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.
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The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,
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The drillin' in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.
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It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
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And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king.
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No, nothin' ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts.
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Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife,
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She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife.
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She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide,
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Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died.
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She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away.
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"Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him, "Well, I guess you must
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have known it would someday.
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Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint,
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I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint."
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Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.
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The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair.
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"There's something funny going on," he said, "I can just feel it in the air."
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He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,
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As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.
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There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.
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Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
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She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much.
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"I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
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But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
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Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.
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| No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pret |
