00:00I read this obituary one day and it was the headline of it that caught my eye and it said
00:07unknown since 45 John Doe number 24 takes his secret to his grave. He was blind and he was deaf
00:15and mute and no one knew where he'd come from. And for the rest of his life he was known
00:20as John Doe number 24 because he was the 24th unidentified man in the Illinois state mental system.
00:27Then one day I started scribbling and as far as whatever tools I bring to the table as a songwriter,
00:35I really had to rely very much on those tools. Imagining touch and smell and sounds and silence for that
00:41matter.
00:42I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois.
00:55When asked what my name was, there came no reply. They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit
01:05boy.
01:07But Lewis was my name, though I could not say it. I was born and raised in New Orleans. My
01:21spirit was wild, so I let the river take it.
01:25On a barge and a prayer upstream. They searched for a mother and they searched for a father. And they
01:39searched till they searched no more.
01:44And the doctors put to rest their scientific tests. And they named to me John Doe number 24.
01:55And they all shook their heads in pity. For a world so silent and dark. Well, there's no doubt that
02:13life's a mystery. But so too is the human heart.
02:21It was my heart's own perfume. When the crepe jasmine bloomed on St. Charles Avenue.
02:35Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming. By towing the track I knew.
02:47And if I were an old man returning. With my satchel and pork pie hat. I'd hit every jazz joint
03:06on bourbon. And I'd hit every one on bass and after that.
03:13.
04:44Lately I've been growing listless
04:48I've been dreaming again of the past
04:55I'm wandering down to the banks
05:00Of the great big muddy
05:02Where the shotgun houses stand
05:09I am seven years old
05:13And I feel my daddy reach out for my hand
05:22While I drew breath no one missed me
05:28So they won't on the day that I cease
05:34Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me
05:41To remind me of New Orleans
05:49I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
05:55In Jacksonville, Illinois
05:59In Jacksonville, Illinois
06:01Oh, yeah, I'm the one that's working to meet
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