In My Time Of Need

Official Appearance:

Unofficial Appearance:

Notes:

• “This is a song I wrote for Johnny Cash’s new record, but he’s really sick, so I don’t know if he’s gonna sing it or not.”  Ryan Adams, 10/20/99. 
• “This is a song I wrote for the new Whiskeytown record that didn’t go on it, and we were recording the record in upstate New York in West Hurley which is near Woodstock . . . and there was this sort of curious old man that hung around near the house we were staying and I decided I wanted to get in his head and try to write a song from his perspective.  So in some ways that’s a disclaimer if in the song I try to be pretend to be like 76 years old.”  Ryan Adams, 10/28/99.
• “This is a song that I wrote sort of from the perspective of somebody else entirely.  We were making the record in upstate New York in West Hurley which is near Woodstock and some other places.  We were snowed in and there was this old man that hung out near the studio – it was actually a huge church where we made the record but they de-God-ed it somehow.  They had the guy come in an they moved all the holy spirit down the road a couple of miles, thank God, no pun intended, before we got there.  And there was this old guy that would hang around.  I was kind of fascinated by him, he didn’t say much, but I always wondered what it would be like to get in his head and he’s obviously very old and not getting around very good, and so I wrote this song kind of based, loosely based on this character that I ran into.”  Ryan Adams, 10/29/99.
• “When I was doing some recording in upstate New York there was this old man that was really interesting.  And everyone in Woodstock, if you’ve ever been there, it’s like Santa’s Funky Village – everybody is fucked up, stoned or drunk, not in a bad way, but just naturally, good-hearted, fucked up people.  I can identify with that. . . . I started to think about what it would be like if you were old, maybe 60 or 70 and spent your whole life supporting your kids and ran out of time for yourself and you were married and that was kind of hard.  So it was nice, I took a little break to la-la land from all my ‘Oh, Fuck Me’ songs and wrote a ‘Oh, Fuck This Guy’ song.”  Ryan Adams, 02/13/00.

Played Live:

10/20/99

Lyrics:

Will you comfort me in my time of need?
Can you take away the pain and hurtful deeds?
Because when we need it most, there's no rain at all
And dust settles right there on the feed.

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me.

Cause when the calm comes down
We'll take the truck on into town
And buy whatever we can't seem to grow
Work these hands 'til they bleed
Cause I got mouths to feed
And I got fifteen dollars hid above the stove

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me.

Cause it ain't like it was on back in those days
When everyone would offer up their hand
These old bones are worn, I've grown tiresome
I know my time is surely gonna come.

Will you comfort me in my time of need?
Can you take away the pain and hurtful deeds?
Cause I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me.

Lord we married young and stayed where we came from
And gave those children everything we had
Will you stay with me in my time of need?
Though it seems we had such little time for us.

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me.