The picture attached to this track is from my 1972 passport. I was heading towards South America via Mexico and other parts of Central America. I knew that certain hairstyles were frowned upon at various borders. Rather than doing anything drastic, like cutting my hair, I purchase a $15 dollar short hair wig and wore it for my passport photo. That’s me in my wig hat.
That wig hat served me well across a number of borders.
I actually wrote the song before I ever crossed one of those borders. At least I think so. I know I wrote it while I was travelling on my own somewhere between the US border and Silvia, Columbia. I had plenty of time in cheap hotel rooms along the way.
I like to think that this song says something about the experience of being a traveller on the road to who knows where. I’m not sure what that might be, but it feels very familiar. It takes me back.
Mad Hatter
Verse 1:
Looking for hat that comes from south of the border
He needs very big one so it must be made to order
All we really know is that he’s from a northern nation
Where he took off his sombrero and he left it in the station
Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter
Verse 2:
Morning takes his head and hides it in the corner
But that can’t conceal the fact that he’s been heading for the border
So he takes a couple pills just to prove he’s not a purist
Puts a wig hat on his head so he looks just like a tourist
Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter
Verse 3:
Paradise is just a place he touches on the run
The loving and the living give him strength for moving on
The world’s out there waiting but it always strikes him funny
When he ends up in some hell hole and he’s just run out of money
Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter
Verse 4:
Can’t tell you bout his future, can’t tell you bout his past
Sometimes he says he’s happy and hopes that it’ll last
More often in the night in his hotel all alone
He wonders what he’s doing why he hasn’t got a home
Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter
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