On the way home from church to go to work, I heard the end of this interview with Emmylou Harris on NPR. She has a new boxed set out of rare tracks and unreleased material that I am now coveting in the worst way. One of the songs she sang during the interview (accompanied by Buddy Miller) was “Boy from Tupelo”:
You don’t love me this I know
Don’t need a Bible to tell me so
I hung around a little too long
I was good but now I’m gone
Like the buffalo
That boy from Tupelo
Any way the wind can blow
That’s where I’m gonna go
I’ll be gone like a five and dime
It’ll be the perfect crime
Just ask the boy from Tupelo
He’s the king and he ought to know
The shoulder I’ve been leaning on
Is the coldest place I’ve ever known
There’s nothing left for me round here
Looks like it’s time to dissapear
Like the buffalo
That boy from Tupelo
The old wall down in Jericho
Maybelle on the radio
I’ll be gone like the five and dime
It’ll be the perfect crime
Just ask the boy from Tupelo
He’s the king and he ought to know
You don’t love me, this I know
Don’t need a Bible to tell me so
It’s a shame and it’s a sin
Everything I could have been to you
Your last chance Texaco
Your sweetheart of the rodeo
A Juliet to your Romeo
The border you cross into Mexico
I’ll never understand why or how
Oh but baby its too late now
Just ask the boy from Tupelo
He’s the king and he ought to know
In looking at the play list for the songs on the CDs, I found this one, which seems worth passing along. It’s called “Prayer in Open D.”
There’s a valley of sorrow in my soul
Where every night I hear the thunder roll
Like the sound of a distant gun
Over all the damage I have done
And the shadows filling up this land
Are the ones I built with my own hand
There is no comfort from the cold
Of this valley of sorrow in my soul
There’s a river of darkness in my blood
And through every vein I feel the flood
I can find no bridge for me to cross
No way to bring back what is lost
Into the night it soon will sweep
Down where all my grievances I keep
But it won’t wash away the years
Or one single hard and bitter tear
And the rock of ages I have known
Is a weariness down in the bone
I use to ride it like a rolling stone
Now just carry it alone
There’s a highway risin’ from my dreams
Deep in the heart I know it gleams
For I have seen it stretching wide
Clear across to the other side
Beyond the river and the flood
And the valley where for so long I’ve stood
With the rock of ages in my bones
Someday I know it will lead me home
Amen.
Peace,
Milton
Emmylou makes the world a better place. Thanks for sharing this; it brightened my evening considerably.
it’s a good week for music. Emmylou’s box set, new joni mitchell album, new mark knophler, new herbie hancock, new alison krauss & robert plant. Just got back from seeing Over the Rhine in San Juan Capistrano…it’s a good time for music.
Not to mention new Springsteen, new Lyle Lovett and — next week — new Steve Earle.
Peace,
Milton
Wonderful, she is so great, and Prayer in Open D especially is probably my favourite.
I join you in coveting her new collection.
Ahhhhh…Sweet, Emmylou…”With the rock of ages in my bones, Someday, I know it will lead me home”…that’s SOUL music…
dg
PS: And I just found out today a new Annie Lennox album out on 2nd December. Or Lordy, my poor bank balance.