Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Gentle On My Mind








Gentle On My Mind
Glen Campbell

It's knowin' that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said because
They thought we fit together walkin'
It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
'cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waitin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

2 Comments:

Blogger Willowtree said...

There are some songs, where once you take the music away, and just read the words, they dont make much sense at all, but this is a beautiful poem, without a note of music.
I dont listen to radio music very often, but something tells me, that I wouldnt hear anything like this on the real "modern" stations.

7:58 PM  
Blogger Frank said...

Wow! You are sure right about that. I'm so used to the words and music on this song, but just reading the words without thinking of the music, it's very poetic! I wonder if Glen Campbell wrote this, or had a writer do it for him. Another research project!

My mother had (has) great musical taste; I heard everything from Glen Campbell to the O'Jays as a kid, so all of this music is ingrained in me, because my mom would play it as she cleaned the house.

12:02 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home