It's been seven long days and seven hard nights In a sixty-two Chevy with broke taillights An eastbound man in a westbound lane A dishwater blonde about sixteen Was standing on the shoulder with a ribbon in her hair Her hand on her hip and her thumb in the air And I pulled off the road and as she grabbed for the door I knew the wind was cold 'cuz I'd seen it all before And I was scared Things ain't never what they seem When you find yourself livin' in your own dream Now the moonlight peeked in and out behind the clouds Now and again on this godless child And the radio was scramblin', cracklin' in the air The ribbon she wore looked old in her hair And I saw the moonlight sliver dead down on her face I knew it was true she was in the wrong place In the wrong time, in the wrong tale I knew when I'd asked her she'd hiss, "Christabel" Things ain't never what they seem When you find yourself livin' in your own dream She was after the man who'd left her alone With no father beside her and love longtime gone And the snake deep inside her a hiss in her head The rest that had been her was dying or dead And she'd a taste for young women with pearly white skin She spat on the floor when she spoke of the man who made her like this
Who had written her tale This medieval maid they call Christabel Things ain't never what they seem When you find yourself livin' in your own dream Then she breathed out the story of her lover to be A knight'n shining armor on a silvery steed Who longed to be worthy so he sought the crusade While she waited, breath bated, in linen brocade But a pair of black eyes wove 'round her a spell The snake they call Lydia seduced Christabel And she cuddled her tender and she poisoned her soul She stole her young body and made it her own Things ain't never what they seem When you find yourself livin' in your own dream Now the knight would love Lydia in Christabel's arms And Lydia would have it should he ever return But Lydia was left with the story undone No silvery steed no castle no throne Half woman half serpent entwined in a spell A barge black and fancy this medieval tale And she faded at dawn the bird and the beast Deep in the dreams of those bound for the east Like me Things ain't never what they seem When you find yourself livin' in your own dream Things ain't never what they seem...