Arlo Guthrie Album

words and music by Arlo Guthrie

Not so long ago I set out on this road
With my friends and my companions by my side
And I think of you wherever I do go
I'm a rambler, I ain't hard to satisfy.

CHORUS:
Won't be long till I am home again with you
Just a few more miles to go
Won't be long till I can get back on my own
Won't be long till I can spend my time with you

In the airport I'm standing in a line
Search my pockets, check me out and I'm alright
It's not hard but it ain't easy all the time
To be in some other town most every night

CHORUS

Oh, I miss the singing from porch banjo nights
And when friends come by to pass the time away
And when the winds that chill the Bershires in the night
Heading east through Massachusetts toward the bay.

You said you didn't know,
that the cats with the bugs were there,
and you never go along with that kind of stuff no where,
but that just isn't the point man,
that's the wrong wrong way to go,
if you didn't know about that one, well then what else don't you know,
You said that you were lied to,
well that aint hard too see,
but you must have been fooled again by your friends across the sea,
and maybe you were fooled again by your people here at home,
because nobody could talk like you,
and know what's going on,
Nobody elected your family,
and we didn't elect your friends,
no one voted for your advisors,
and nobody wants amends,
You're the one we voted for, so you must take the blame,
For handing out authority to men who were insane,
You say its all fixed up now, you've got new guys on the line,
but you had better remember this while you still got the time,
Mothers still are weeping for their boys that went to war,
father still are asking what the whole damn thing was for,
and People still are hungry and people still are poor,
And an honest week of work these days don't feed the kids no more,
Schools are still like prisons,
cuz we don't learn how to live,
and everybody wants to take, nobody wants to give,
Yes you will be remembered, be remembered very well,
and if I live a long life, all the stories I could tell,
A many who are in in poverty of sickness and of grief,
hell yes,
you will be remembered, be remembered very well,
You said you didn't know,
that the that the cats with the bugs were there,
You'd never go along with that kind of stuff no where
But that just isn't the point man,
That's the wrong ,wrong way to go,
You didn't know about that one,
well then what else don't you know.

Lyrics by Woody Guthrie
Music by Martin Hoffman

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are piled in their cresote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

My father's own father, he wanted that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
And they rode the truck till they took down and died

CHORUS
Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane
And all they will call you will be deportees.

Some of us are illega, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like theives.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys and died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

CHORUS

A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning, it shook all our hills
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says they are just deportees.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except deportees?

Children of Abraham, what's your story?
Killing each other for a piece of land
Children of Abraham, this ain't glory
You've got to walk together hand in hand

Take down the flags that just seperate the people
Take down the wire on the boundry
Take back the words that were spoken in anger
You've got to live just like a family

Children of Abraham,I must be dreaming
Rivers of blood running thru your hands
Children crying, mothers screaming
It just wasn't looking like the Promised Land

[No lyrics]

words and music by Jimmy Rodgers

Cattle prowl and the coyotes howl
Out on the Great Divide
Never done no wrong, just singin' a song
As down the trail I ride

Rattle snakes rattle at the prairie dogs
You can hear that mournful tune
'Cause it's round-up time, a-way out west
When the cactus is in bloom
Yodel...

CHORUS
Daylight comes and the cowhands yell
They call out every man
Throw my saddle on my old cow horse
I drink my coffee from a can
The sun goes down on the cattle trail
And I'm gazin' at the moon
'Cause it's round-up time, a-way out west
When the cactus is in bloom
Yodel . . .

Now we don't have cold weather
It never snows or rains
This is where the sun shines best
Out on the western plains
Some of the boys are gone away
But they will be back soon
'Cause it's round-up time, a-way out west
When the cactus is in bloom
Yodel...

CHORUS

Me and my goose
Me and my pal
We had some very good times
Me and my goose his name was Al
And he cost only a dime

Over meadows we'd stray
Playing all day
I missed him at night until dawn
Then one day I found he wasn't around
I wondered where Al could have gone

I looked everywhere he just wasn't there
Where could a goose be all day
I miss my pal
I miss my Al
It's sad that things turned out this way

Then mom brought him
I remeber her grin
Stuffed with his feet pointed straight

I'll never forget the night that we ate
Al off of the old yellow plate

You get a hammer and I'll get a nail
And you catch a bird and I'll catch a snail
You bring a board and I'll bring a saw
And we'll build a house for the baby-o

CHORUS
Bling, Blang, hammer with my hammer
Zingo, Zango, cutting with my saw
Bling, Blang, hammer with my hammer
Zingo, Zango, cutting with my saw

I'll grab some mud and you grab some clay
So when it rains it won't wash away
We'll build a house that'll be so strong
The winds will sing my baby a song

CHORUS

Run bring rocks and I'll bring bricks
A nice pretty house we'll build and fix
We'll jump inside when the cold wind blows
And kiss our little baby-o

CHORUS

You bring a ladder and I'll get a box
Build our house of bricks and blocks
When the snowbird flies and the honeybee comes
We'll feed our baby on honey in the comb

CHORUS

[No lyrics]

I ain't got a nickle to call mine
The goverment has made me pay my tax on time
The've takin' all my bread
And left me here for Dead
I ain't even got a lousy dime

Chorus
Who the hell wants money
When there ain't none to be had
It don't make the good times better
It don't make the bad times bad
Well you find out who your friends are
When you ain't got a dime
Just trying to make the best of these hard times

I've got 15 cars and I can't afford the gas
We've got a horse, but how long can she last
My managers enraged
My banker stands there days
Funny how the money goes so fast

Chorus

We are broke but we've been broke before
But being broke don't scare us anymore
My daddy's broke and grandpa too
But I'm still here to sing for you
We are going to make it thru for sure...

Chorus
Well you find out who your friends are
When you ain't got a dime
Just trying to make the best of these hard times

By Arlo Guthrie

Lonely sunshine, days come easy,
Spend my time alone at rest,
And if I were the last to leave here,
Now would these roads be any less?

Oh, I'm the last to leave.
Now would these ribbon highway roads
Be less wonderful to me?
Why must I always be so slow?

Many friends come and go,
You know there's a lot of feelings that I've left behind,
And it's a lonely world, I know,
When your friends are hard to find.

But take the time, my memory fails,
And soak my eyes in the morning rain,
Like a sailor, sailing over Jordan,
On the road back home again.

Oh, I'm the last to leave.
Would these ribbon highway roads
Be less wonderful to me?
Why must I always be so slow?