I was walking in New York City and I brushed up
against the man in front of me. I felt a cardboard
placard on his back. And when we passed a
streetlight, I could read it, it said "Please
don't pass me by - I am blind, but you can see
-I've been blinded totally - Please don't pass me
by." I was walking along 7th Avenue, when I
came to 14th Street I saw on the corner curious
mutilations of the human form; it was a school for
handicapped people. And there were cripples, and
people in wheelchairs and crutches and it was
snowing, and I got this sense that the whole city
was singing this:

Oh please don't pass me by, oh please don't pass
me by, for I am blind, but you can see, yes, I've
been blinded totally, oh please don't pass me by.

And you know as I was walking I thought it was
them who were singing it, I thought it was they
who were singing it, I thought it was the other
who was singing it, I thought it was someone else.
But as I moved along I knew it was me, and that I
was singing it to myself. It went:

Please don't pass me by, oh please don't pass me
by, for I am blind, but you can see, well, I've
been blinded totally, oh please don't pass me by.
Oh please don't pass me by.

Now I know that you're sitting there deep in your
velvet seats and you're thinking "Uh, he's up
there saying something that he thinks about, but
I'll never have to sing that song." But I
promise you friends, that you're going to be
singing this song: it may not be tonight, it may
not be tomorrow, but one day you'll be on your
knees and I want you to know the words when the
time comes. Because you're going to have to sing
it to yourself, or to another, or to your brother.
You're going to have to learn to sing this song,
it goes:

Please don't pass me by, ah you don't have to sing
this .. not for you. Please don't pass me by, for
I am blind, but you can see, yes, I've been
blinded totally, oh please don't pass me by.

Well I sing this for the Jews and the Gypsies and
the smoke that they made. And I sing this for the
children of England, their faces so grave. And I
sing this for a saviour with no one to save. Hey,
won't you be naked for me? Hey, won't you be naked
for me? It goes:

Please don't pass me by, oh please don't pass me
by, for I am blind, but you can see, yes, I've
been blinded totally, oh now, please don't pass me
by.

Now there's nothing that I tell you that will help
you connect the blood tortured night with the day
that comes next. But I want it to hurt you, I want
it to end. Oh, won't you be naked for me? Oh now:

Please don't pass me by, oh please don't pass me
by, for I am blind, but you can see, yes, I've
been blinded totally, oh now, please don't pass me
by.

Well I sing this song for you Blonde Beasts, I
sing this song for you Venuses upon your shells on
the foam of the sea. And I sing this for the
freaks and the cripples, and the hunchback, and
the burned, and the burning, and the maimed, and
the broken, and the torn, and all of those that
you talk about at the coffee tables, at the
meetings, and the demonstrations, on the streets,
in your music, in my songs. I mean the real ones
that are burning, I mean the real ones that are
burning

I say, Please don't pass me by, oh now, please
don't pass me by, for I am blind, but you can see,
ah now, I've been blinded totally, oh no, please
don't pass me by.

I know that you still think that its me. I know
that you think that there's somebody else. I know
that these words aren't yours. But I tell you
friends that one day

You're going to get down on your knees, you're
going to get down on your knees, you're going to
get down on your knees, you're going to get down
on your knees, you're going to get down on your
knees, you're going to get down on your knees,
you're going to get down on your knees, you're
going to get down on your knees, you're going to
get down ...

Oh, please don't pass me by, oh, please don't pass
me by, for I am blind, yeah but you can see, yes,
I've been blinded totally, oh, please don't pass
me by.

Well you know I have my songs and I have my poems.
I have my book and I have the army, and sometimes
I have your applause. I make some money, but you
know what my friends, I'm still out there on the
corner. I'm with the freaks, I'm with the hunted,
I'm with the maimed, yes I'm with the torn, I'm
with the down, I'm with the poor. Come on now ...

Ah, please don't pass me by, well I've got to go
now friends, but, please don't pass me by, for I
am blind, yeah but you can see, oh, I've been
blinded, I've been blinded totally, oh now, please
don't pass me by.

Now I want to take away my dignity, yes take my
dignity. My friends, take my dignity, take my
form, take my style, take my honour, take my
courage, take my time, take my time, .. time ..
'Cause you know I'm with you singing this song.
And I wish you would, I wish you would, I wish you
would go home with someone else. Wish you'd go
home with someone else. I wish you'd go home with
someone else. Don't be the person that you came
with. Oh, don't be the person that you came with,
Oh don't be the person that you came with. Ah, I'm
not going to be. I can't stand him. I can't stand
who I am. That's why I've got to get down on my
knees. Because I can't make it by myself. I'm not
by myself anymore because the man I was before he
was a tyrant, he was a slave, he was in chains, he
was broken and then he sang:

Oh, please don't pass me by, oh, please don't pass
me by, for I am blind, yes I am blind, Oh but you
can see, yes, I've been blinded totally, oh,
please don't pass me by.

Well I hope I see you out there on the corner.
Yeah I hope as I go by that I hear you whisper
with the breeze. Because I'm going to leave you
now, I'm going to find me someone new. Find
someone knew.

And please don't pass me by.