Johnny Cash Album

(Johnny Cash)

I have always had my heroes I've loved a lot of legends
Many men in my mind are ridin' tall
But my cowboy hero hats off to the man who rode a donkey
He's the greatest cowboy of them all
He loves all his little doggies he speaks to them kind and gently
And he'll lift up any maverick that falls
He sees every stray that scatters like it's the only one that matters
He's the greatest cowboy of them all
Once he rode into the sunset but some returning sunrise
He'll call up all the riders in the sky
I gotta get my roll together gettin' ready for that sunrise
That winds up where old cowboys never die
The trail he rides is narrow but it's straighter than an arrow
And he rides point for all the great and small
He will take us through the wire onto that plain that's higher
He's the greatest cowboy of them all
Once he rode into the sunset...

Hold on honey I'd like to say
I'm busting out and breaking away
I'm letting you go like a hot horse shoe
I can't take another heart ache from you

Think about how it's gonna be
When you start back to needing me
When your dancing shoes have lost their shine
I'm gonna be gone in mine

I'm leaving now
I'm leaving now
Get out of my face
Get out of my place
I'm leaving now, adios
I'm leaving now

And the time it comes when you trim the fat
Feed the kitchen scraps to the front seat cat
Bye bye baby when the bills come due
You might have to sell a jewel or two

Eat your heart out anyway
It's hard as your head and it's cold as clay
It's all over now you won't have me
Your sugar daddy or your money tree

I'm leaving now yeah
I'm leaving now
Get out of my space
Get out of my face
I'm leaving now, hey hey
I'm leaving now

Pull up the collar on my traveling coat
Sell that miserable pleasure boat
I wouldn't give another nickel for another buck
I'm living on muscle, guts, and luck

If anybody asks where did I go
Tell 'em I went where the wild goose goes
I wouldn't have me an area code
Don't have a number, don't need a row

I'm leaving now, me to
I'm leaving now
Get out of my face
Get out of my space
I'm leaving now, adios
I'm leaving now

I'm leaving now
I'm leaving now
Get out of my space
Get out of my face
I'm leaving now, adios

(Johnny Cash)

Peterbilt drivers don't pick up low riders they don't slow for the curves in the
road
They hate to keep logs they hate riders on hogs watch out for shift in your load
When I was young I had a Gene Autry gun but I never had a Lionel train
Now I've got a truck if I keep payments up and it weights thirty tons in the
rain

I wear Frisco jeans with riveted seams my money is chained to my belt
I wear a cat cap just like my pap he drove till it ruined his health
Now Georgia Bill Smith wore thick glasses and boots
He could see about as far as he could walk
He came up too fast on that bridge overpass Lord the preacher sure gave a fine
talk
When I was young...
[ dobro ]
I've read a few lines from the poets and sometimes I might cross the line
I don't know the answer to the mystery of life but a woman sure helps pass the
time
When I was young...

Hey porter! Hey porter!
Would you tell me the time?
How much longer will it be till we cross
that Mason Dixon Line?
At daylight would ya tell that engineer
to slow it down?
Or better still, just stop the train,
Cause I wanna look around.

Hey porter! Hey porter!
What time did ya say?
How much longer will it be till I can
see the light of day?
When we hit Dixie will you tell that engineer
to ring his bell?
And ask everybody that ain't asleep
to stand right up and yell.

Hey porter! Hey porter!
It's getting light outside.
This old train is puffin' smoke,
and I have to strain my eyes.
But ask that engineer if he will
blow his whistle please.
Cause I smell frost on cotton leaves
and I feel that Southern breeze.

Hey porter! Hey porter!
Please get my bags for me.
I need nobody to tell me now
that we're in Tennessee.
Go tell that engineer to make that
lonesome whistle scream,
We're not so far from home
so take it easy on the steam.

Hey porter! Hey porter!
Please open up the door.
When they stop the train I'm gonna get off first
Cause I can't wait no more.
Tell that engineer I said thanks alot,
and I didn't mind the fare.
I'm gonna set my feet on Southern soil
and breathe that Southern air.

(Johnny Cash)

I couldn't hear you for the TV I didn't know you said goodbye
I saw your cancelled check for the airfare didn't know flyin' got too high
Beans for breakfast once again hard to eat 'em from the can
I've run out of clean utensils I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
I heard the crows outside my window guess it's me they're talkin' about
The fire you lit has burnt to cinders every good thing's fizzled out
Beans for breakfast once again hard to eat 'em from the can
Wish you'd come back and wash the dishes I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
Caught a cold with the window open crow droppings on my window sill
Probably got histoplasmosis got no gun or I would kill them crows
Beans for breakfast once again hard to eat 'em from the can
Plastic forks are a dime a dozen I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
Finally made it to the mailbox felt so bad I thought I'd die
All I got was a bill from my doctor well I guess flyin' ain't so high
Beans for breakfast once again hard to eat 'em from the can
Blue tick mattress cold and greasy I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
The house burned down from the fire that I built in your closet by mistake
After I took all them pills but I got out safe in my duck head overalls

(Chester Lester)

You can see it in the movies and the paper and the TV news
Somebody's army is always on the move
There's gonna be a battle the lines have been drawn
They've got guns and tanks and planes
The wells are gone dry and the water is bad and the rain is acid rain
There's war after war and rumors of war from the East
There's a rumblin' in the ground and they're talkin' about the beast
Good mothers cry cause the rivers run high with the bloood of too many sons
Some people say peace is on the way but the worse is still to come
Cause the prophets wrote about it and Jesus spoke about it and John gotta take a
look
And he told us what he saw and it's easy to see
It's goin' by the book it's goin' by the book
[ guitar ]
There's armies in the cities and the missiles stand ready for flight
A pale horse rides like the wind across the night
And that rumblin' in the desert like thunder gettin' closer
And the trumpet's gettin' ready to blow
There's gonna be a shout that will wake the dead we better be ready to go
Cause the prophets wrote about it...

(Jimmie Rodgers)

All around the water tank waitin' for a train
I'm a thousand miles away from home sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talk
He said if you've got money I will see that you don't walk
I haven't got a nickel not one penny can I show
He said get off you railroad bum and he slammed the boxcar door
[ piano ]
He put me off in Texas a place I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me and the moon and stars above
Nobody seems to want me nor to lend me a helping hand
I'm on my way from Frisco headin' back to Dixie Land
My pocketbook is empty and my heart is filled with pain

(Johnny Cash)

I'm an easy rider the wind is at my back I'm an easy rider the white line is my
track
Every lane is a passin' lane and the ride away is mine
Let me on that straight-away and I'll be fairly flyin'
I'm an easy rider my wheels love to roll
I'm an easy rider I ride a new road every day
I'm an easy rider I will see you on my way
I got a number down in every town in my little black book
And they understand that I'm a travelin' man so they don't think they got hooked
I'm an easy rider I love that gray highway
[ guitar ]
I'm an easy rider oh Lord I love to roll I'm an easy rider movin's in my soul
I know a lady down in Little Rock and I stopped for a little while
But I had to go cause another I know is wain' for my smile

(Johnny Prine)

There was a time when lonely men would wander through this land rolling
aimlessly along
So many times I've heard of their sad story written in the words of dead men's
song
Down through the years many men have yearned for freedom
Some found it only on the open road
So many tears of blood have fell around us
Cause you can't always do what you were told
Please tell me where have all the hobos gone to
I see no fire burning down by the rusty railroad tracks
Could it be that time has gone and left them tied up in life's eternal travelin'
sack

Last Sunday night I wrote a letter to my loved one
I signed my name and I knew that I stayed away way too long
There was a time when my heart was free to wander
And I remember as I sing this hobo song
Please tell me where...

(Johnny Cash)

There was a man whose deeds were dark as night
And quite by chance he rode into the light
A man wild as the dust devil with no place to run livin' by his wits and by his
gun
He met a girl like none he had ever known she cared not for the wild oats he had
sown
And so he laid his gun down and set his spirit free began living in
respectability
But his old ways of thinkin' wouldn't die could not forget the old creed he
lived by
And the good and bad and right and wrong kept fightin' for his soul
Till his heart and mind both went out of control
[ guitar ]
But now the old saloon had lost its spell what once was laughter now was living
hell
And the hookers guns and drinkin' in his life were out of place
And in his mind he saw an angel's face
So he burned all his bridges in a day and the devil deeds were done and laid
away
And he rode out a better man than when he first rode in

(w/ U2)

I went out wandering
through streets paved with gold
lifted some stone saw the skin and bones
of a city without a soul
I went out wandering
under an atomic sky
where the ground won't turn
and the rain it burns
like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I left with nothing
nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting
through the capitals of tin
where men can't walk or freely talk
and sons turn their fathers in
Yeah I went out walking
down that old Lake Lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Just a looking for my own name

Yeah I left with nothing
nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

Yeah I went out there in search of experience
to taste and to touch and to feel as much
as a man can before he repents

I went walking
looking for one good man
a spirit who would not bend or break
who would stand at his father's right hand
I went out walking with a Bible and a gun
the word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now Jesus don't you wait up
Jesus I'll be home soon
Yeah I went out for the paper
Told her I'd be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought you'd be there too