When the cardboard cowboy dreams and he's [gonna look me up]
Opened up the sky and blows my mind to the colours of
[Far in far gent shine running]
Beneath high trembling [dove]
Till you meet that six and later in the wake of the hammer blowOn my way out of town I stumbled on the [shards] of a hungry [screen]
And further up into the backdoor circle
Where the flower and crystal seat
Could this [go rise by all brater] on the strength of an anguished sigh
And a paranoid re-entry blanket lies sleeping on a sling-shot ride
As my patchwork quilt unravels I ramble yes too high
From the [looping antrobus] with his magic meant so high
[Training out into the rat foray from dawn to the elf above]
Watching mashed potatoes dribble in the heat of reality's earth
[For the intro doom] from running through him
Fall though never sung
Turns the wall into the sky above me, there is no place to run
Performance history: One documented performance only, July 17, 1966, at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco. "Cardboard Cowboy" followed "In the Pines" and preceded "Nobody's Fault But Mine."
This note from Alex Allan, who provided the words above as best he could:
Yes well! Words in square brackets are just the nearest phonetic sounds to what I hear. There's clearly a lot of psychedelic imagery and heaven's knows if the "true" lyrics even exist now. But perhaps others have better tapes and/or better ears. I don't know anything about the song other than that it was recorded during the summer on 1966 during studio sessions somewhere, and was played live on 7-16-66.