From the album Talking Back to the Night, released 1982 on Island Records.
Words and Music by Steve Winwood and Will Jennings.
Key of G-minor. Time signature 4/4.
Eb6/9 Gm7 Gm11 Ebmaj7 Eb6/9 Gm7 Gm11 Ebmaj7
High above the heat of a summer New York street,
Eb6/9 Gm7 Gm11 Ebmaj7 Eb6/9 Gm7 Gm11
An out-of-work musician plays a solo saxophone
Dsus4 Cm7(addF) C13
He's a preacher and a teacher, and he stands there all alone
Stranded in the dark of a vision in the park,
A poet in his madness tries to find another line
And he's losing and he's using, and he says he's doing fine
Dm7 C Dm7 Ebmaj7
And they look from such a height that somehow it's all right
C Dm C/D Gm7
They're talking back to the night, it's all that they can do
C/G Dm C/D Gm7 F
Talking back to the night, it's how they make it through
C Bb/F Gm F/A Bb
If you listen you can hear them, their voices draw you near them
D7sus4 Gm7 Gm11 Ebmaj7
They're talking back to the night for you
Something seems to take every dime the man can make
His dream is getting smaller and he wonders where to turn
And he's trying hard to make it, and he's trying not to burn
Woman never minds, pulls the shade and draws the blinds
She takes him in the darkness where the loneliest can feed
And she gives him all she has to and it's no more than he needs
(refrain)
(repeat first 3 lines of refrain)
Talking back to the night, talking back to the night ...