| Y'all
Come Back Saloon
She played tambourine with a silver jingle
and she must have known the words to at least a million tunes,
but the one most requested by the man she knew as "Cowboy"
Was the late night benediction at the Y'all Come Back Saloon.
In a voice soft and trembling
She’d sing her song to Cowboy
As a smoky halo circled round her raven hair
And all the fallen angels, the pinball playing round her
Stopped the game that they’d been playing
For the loser’s evening prayer.
Faded love and faded memories
How they linger in her mind.
Miles and years played the cowboy
Like an old melody out of tune and out of time.
Every night in the shadows thinking back on Amarillo
He'd dream of better days and ask for faded love
Lifting high his glass in honor of the lady and her song
He paid his check then lonely walked that broken cowboy home.
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I'll Be True To You
They met upon a blue moon
And they parted on a cloudy day.
They were so in love and out of school.
But he was going so far, far away.
She said, “I’ll be true to you
Even though you don’t want me to.
And I’ll be blue for you
Even though you’ve asked me not to.”
Well the years drifted by them as we all know they can
He found other women, but she refused other men.
But as fate would have it they met again.
She was on a downhill slide, he was just sliding in.
As he looked into her eyes that night he never realized
The only real love in his life was passing by.
When he turned and left her there, his words “Goodbye”
He heard her calling out to him and as he walked she cried.
“I’ve been true to you.
Seems like speaking to me
Is the least you that you could do.
And I’ve been blue for you
Even though you’ve asked me not to.”
She’d been drinking way too hard one night
She’d been drinking way too long
Alone and pale in a cheap hotel
She died there in the dawn.
Kneeling by her grave, o so late and o so wrong.
He longed to hold her close again, crying on and on.
He cried, “I’ll be true to you
After all that I have put you through
And I’ll be blue for you
Though you never even asked me to.”
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An Old Time Family Bluegrass Band
We catch our memories wandering through the past from time to time
As a mountain families’ music fills again inside our mind
We dream about Euganean Hills and West Virginian land
And an old time family blue grass band.
Our God fearing mum and daddy raised us young ‘uns on a song
By the banks where old new river gently sways and rolled along
Where once upon a time there dwelled a close knit mountain clan
An old time family blue grass band.
You never heard the like of melodies our family played
The guitar kept the rhythm as the fiddle sawed away
We recall a banjo ringing and a singing mandolin
In an old time family blue grass band.
Daddy slapped the upright, mamma strummed the autoharp
We couldn’t read the music we just played it all by heart
Lord how those songs just flowed across that fertile mountain land
In an old time family blue grass band.
I see us sitting round the porch on starry summer nights
I remember how the music made my world seem good and right
When all the folks would raise their happy voices and join in
With the old time family blue grass band.
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Didn't She Really Thrill Them (Back In 1924)
She sits there on her front porch every day at 4 o’clock
Waving at the traffic that runs up and down the block
Her face and hands are wrinkled and her grey hair almost shines
Over 50 years have come and gone since she was in her prime.
A high school girl in blue jeans stops each Thursday afternoon
They talk about life and love and phases of the moon
She lets the girl try on the gown she’s kept for all these years
She talks about when she was young, her old eyes filled with tears.
Didn’t she really thrill them back in 1924
Young men fell in love with her
When she came through the door
Every dance was taken
Still they’d ask for just one more
Oh she stole their hearts away in 1924.
She holds a photo album as she rocks there in her chair
Here’s the men she almost married – they all look so debonair
She remembers all the faces and the night each one proposed
It makes her feel so young again as her old eyes slowly close.
The papers never said much when the old maid passed away
For the man who drove the moving-van it was just another day
The florist never understood when the young girl left the store
Just why she sent a wreath that said from the class of ’24.
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Old Time Lovin'
Give me that old time lovin’
Like it was in the beginning
Yes that old time lovin’
Make it never ending
Give me that old time,
Good time lovin’ we once knew
I want that old time love again with you.
Love was sweet, love was ripe
We’d rush home every night.
Life was like a flower in full bloom
Little house, no one cared.
There were good times to be shared
Even though the place just had three rooms
And there was hardly a whole night that we slept through.
How I want that old time love again with you.
Times were hard but we had fun
When the old car wouldn’t run
We thought of better things to do
Love was sweet, love was right
Let’s bring it back tonight
Let’s make that old time lovin’ seem brand new
It’s the only kind of lovin’ that will do
How I want that old time love again with you.
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Freckles
They’d all call her Freckles when summer was coming around
All the kids that were running and laughing and some turned to brown.
And I’d find her crying and hurt by the words that they said
And follow her home just trying to be her friend.
And I’d say Freckles you’re pretty,
There’s a rainbow on your face.
Do you want to know a secret?
None of them could take your place
Cause your different and special
And she’d hold my hand and sigh
And say I always want to see me through your eyes.
But summers just turn into winters and then into years
And slowly the smile of a woman replaced all her tears,
And some how I knew in a while that my friend would be gone
As I watched a sad ugly duckling turn into a swan.
And I said Freckles you’re special
And she’d hold my hold and sigh
And say I always want to see me through your eyes.
But soon she was flying, dancing laughing and proud
And I took my place, a face alone in a crowd.
Knowing her lovers can’t see past her smooth golden skin
And that’s how I know that Freckles will come back again.
And I’ll say Freckles I love you
There’s a rainbow on your face.
Cause she’ll be smiling through her teardrops
As she runs to my embrace.
Freckles you’re special
And she’ll take my hand and sigh
And say I only want to see me through your eyes.
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You're The One
Many's the time I have looked in the water
And had no reflection to show.
Oh, and many's the time
I have stood at the crossroad
Not knowing which way to go.
Many's the time someone lay close beside me
And I don't remember her name.
They'll say that I'm just a smile at a moment
But that was before you came.
You're the one in a million
You're the one, you're the one
You're the one in a million I see
You're the one in a million
You're the one, you're the one
You're the one in a million for me.
Now all of the others were places to go to
when I had nowhere to sleep.
Well I never made any promises to them
None they'd expect me to keep.
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Let Me Be The One
Let me be the one you come to
When you need someone to run to
When you’re tired I’ll try to undo
Everything the world has done to you.
And let me be the one you call on
When your good time friends are all gone
When you need someone to fall on
Won’t you let me be the one?
Right now you long to roam
All I can say is girl be gone
Cause I ain’t gonna hold you to
Nothing you don’t want me to
But should you awake some morning
Find yourself alone and longing
Reach out for that telephone
And let me be the one.
World’s right there at your reach
You want it all and not just me
Sow your oats but keep in mind
That I’ll be here come harvest time.
Standing at the end of your wild road
With a heart full of love and a welcome home
You’ll never have to be alone
If you’ll let me be the one.
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Easy
All the boys called her Easy
Took her to drive-in movies
And bragged about the good times they had
The girls talked about her
And had parties without her
And wondered why a girl would let herself go so bad.
They called her Easy, Easy
And laughed about how easy she was
They called her Easy, Easy
They said she was easy to love.
They didn't care if she was lonely
They didn't care if she was only reaching out
The only way she could
They didn't try to understand her
And this small town talk branded her
With names that said she wasn't any good.
Easy's child came early
It seemed in such a hurry
For one who'd go through life without a name.
Easy's eyes were brighter
Than the moonlight on the water
When they handed her the child no one would claim.
My friends thought I was crazy
To love Easy and her baby
They said I was a fool, but I just smiled
'Cause love is what you make it
Any way you finally take it
It's the only thing that makes life worth while.
Now she's Easy, she’s Easy
And life is not as lonely as it was
Because she's Easy, she's Easy
She's so easy to love.
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Emmylou
Oh ho, Emmylou. Emmylou,
What in the world can I do?
Spend my life just trying to get close to you
Heaven is a girl named Emmylou.
Trailed you out to Houston
To a hotel downtown,
Followed you down the corridor
But you never turned around.
But one of your big old bodyguards
Suggested that I leave
He didn't seem to appreciate
the patch upon my sleeve.
That read
Oh ho, Emmylou. Emmylou,
Just a fan who’s in love with you.
Spend most of my time trying to talk to you
Heaven is a girl named Emmylou.
I heard you went to L.A.
So I hitched myself a ride
California dreaming of me
Right there by your side.
Out at the Palomino Club
I watched you all night long
Until you looked right at me
In the words of your last song.
I asked you for your guitar pick
That’s all that I could say
Then the limo did appear
And took the queen away.
Oh ho, Emmylou. Emmylou,
What in the world can I do?
Spend my life just trying to get close to you
Heaven is a girl named Emmylou.
Well I love Olivia’s eyes
And Ronstadt‘s really nice
But heaven is a girl named Emmylou.
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