The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest lyrics

Well, Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

They were the best of friends

So when Frankie Lee needed money one day

Judas quickly pulled out a roll of tens

And placed them on a footstool

Just above the plotted plain

Sayin’, “Take your pick, Frankie Boy

My loss will be your gain”

Well, Frankie Lee, he sat right down

And put his fingers to his chin

But with the cold eyes of Judas on him

His head began to spin

“Would ya please not stare at me like that,” he said

“It’s just my foolish pride

But sometimes a man must be alone

And this is no place to hide”

Well, Judas, he just winked and said

“All right, I’ll leave you here

But you’d better hurry up and choose which of those bills you want

Before they all disappear”

“I’m gonna start my pickin’ right now

Just tell me where you’ll be”

Judas pointed down the road

And said, “Eternity!”

“Eternity?” said Frankie Lee

With a voice as cold as ice

“That’s right,” said Judas Priest, “Eternity

Though you might call it ‘Paradise’”

“I don’t call it anything”

Said Frankie Lee with a smile

“All right,” said Judas Priest

“I’ll see you after a while”

Well, Frankie Lee, he sat back down

Feelin’ low and mean

When just then a passing stranger

Burst upon the scene

Saying, “Are you Frankie Lee, the gambler

Whose father is deceased?

Well, if you are, there’s a fellow callin’ you down the road

And they say his name is Priest”

“Oh, yes, he is my friend”

Said Frankie Lee in fright

“I do recall him very well

In fact, he just left my sight”

“Yes, that’s the one,” said the stranger

As quiet as a mouse

“Well, my message is, he’s down the road

Stranded in a house”

Well, Frankie Lee, he panicked

He dropped ev’rything and ran

Until he came up to the spot

Where Judas Priest did stand

“What kind of house is this,” he said

“Where I have come to roam?”

“It’s not a house,” said Judas Priest

“It’s not a house . . . it’s a home”

Well, Frankie Lee, he trembled

He soon lost all control

Over ev’rything which he had made

While the mission bells did toll

He just stood there staring

At that big house as bright as any sun

With four and twenty windows

And a woman’s face in ev’ry one

Well, up the stairs ran Frankie Lee

With a soulful, bounding leap

And, foaming at the mouth

He began to make his midnight creep

For sixteen nights and days he raved

But on the seventeenth he burst

Into the arms of Judas Priest

Which is where he died of thirst

No one tried to say a thing

When they took him out in jest

Except, of course, the little neighbor boy

Who carried him to rest

And he just walked along, alone

With his guilt so well concealed

And muttered underneath his breath

“Nothing is revealed”

Well, the moral of the story

The moral of this song

Is simply that one should never be

Where one does not belong

So when you see your neighbor carryin’ somethin’

Help him with his load

And don’t go mistaking Paradise

For that home across the road

• Artist:Bob Dylan
• Album:John Wesley Harding (1967)