He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder

Well, it might have been a blue bird, I don′t know

But he gets stone drunk and talks about AlaskaThe salmon boats and 45 below

He said he got that blue wing out in Walla Walla

And his cellmate there was Little Willy John

Oh, and Willy he was once a great blues singer

Yeah, and winging Willy wrote him up a song

He said it's dark in here, I can′t see the sky

But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes

And I fly away beyond these walls

Up above the clouds where the rain don't fall

On a poor man's dreams

They paroled Blue Wing in August of 1963

And he moved North picking apples to the town of Wenatchee

Then winter finally caught him in a run-down trailer park

On the south side of Seattle where the days grow gray and dark

Well, he drank and he dreamt of visions

Where the salmon still ran free

And his fathers, fathers crossed that

Wide and wild old Bering Sea

And the land belonged to everyone

And there were old songs yet to sing

Now it′s narrowed down to a cheap hotel

And a tattooed prison wing

It′s dark in here, I can't see the sky

But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes

And I fly away beyond these walls

Up above the clouds where the rain don′t fall

On a poor man's dreams

Well, he drank his way to LA, and that′s where he died

And nobody knew his Christian name and there was no one there to cry

But I dreamt there was a funeral, a preacher and a cheap pine box

And half way through the service, that Blue Wing began to talk

Said it's dark in here, I can′t see the sky

But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes

And I fly away beyond these walls

Up above the clouds where the rain don't fall

On a poor man's dreams

On a poor man′s dreams

On a poor man′s dreams