Tom: E
INTRO: E
#1.
E
It's knowin' that your door is always open
Gbm
and your path is free to walk.
That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
B E
rolled up and stashed behind your couch.
E B E
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled by forgotten
words and bonds and the ink stains that have
Gbm
dried upon some line.
That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers
B Gbm B
of my memory..that keeps you ever gentle on my
E
mind.
#2.
E
It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy planted on
Gbm
their columns now that bind me.
A
Or something that somebody said because they thought
B E
we fit together, walkin'.
E B E
It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing
or forgiving when I walk along some railroad track
Gbm
and find..that you're movin' on the back roads by the
A B Gbm B
rivers of my memory and for hours you're just gentle
E
on my mind.
#3.
E
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines and the
Gbm
junkyards and the highways come between us.
Gbm
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother cause she
B E
turned and I was gone.
B
I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain
E B Gbm
my face and the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind.
B
But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the back
Gbm B E
roads by the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind.
#4.
B Dbm
I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin'
Gbm
cauldron in some train yard.
A B
My beard a rustlin' coal pile and a dirty hat pulled low
E
across my face.
E
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can, I pretend to hold
Gbm
you to my breast and find..that you're waitin' from the
A Gbm B Gbm
back roads by the rivers of my memory, ever smilin', ever
B E
gentle on my mind.
