Get the yard cut down and the babies fed
A million songs runnin' through my head
Daylight comes I'll be gone again
When does the highway ever end
My shoulders bare such a heavy load
Hard to keep my thoughts all in a row
I can't slow down the life I've chose
Somehow I love the way it goes
Time moves fast and the wheels turn slow
That's how the life of a travelin' man goes

The winds of change are a blowin' through
Just like they're always gonna do
They'll turn the page to another name
Different picture in the same ole frame
Lightning flashing up ahead
A million songs runnin' through my head
I can't name every place I've been
But if the Lord is willing I'll be there again

Everybody drives the same old roads these days
Don't see a thing, but they know the way
Every mile's a marker, every town's the same
Another place to stop but not to stay

Daddy was a brakeman on the L&N
Sometimes he'd let me ride along with him
No matter where we'd stop along the way
Everybody knew his name

A different story down every line
People workin' hard just to live and die
I saw it all once upon a time
Through the window of a train

Then we started back the way we came
Like people moving through a picture frame
Seems the whole world's further down the track
But I'm always looking back

I don't expect you all to understand
Or see the country like a railroad man
So many things you'd never realize
Unless you saw 'em with these eyes

Birmingham to Jackson, hear the whistle call
And the sun goes down like a big red ball
In my memory I still see it all
Through the window of a train

It was down by the forked stream
Out in Sycamore Holler
I went down in my best of dress
To take her from her father

With hair down to her waist
The color of strawberries
Down by the forked stream
By night fall we would marry

I sure love the farmer's daughter
Back in Sycamore Holler

On a horse seventeen hands high
He rode in Sherman 's army
To Atlanta town against her will
He took my woman from me

Well I grabbed my knife and
both of my guns
In a loud voice I did call her
Upon a lightning horse I swore once more
As I left Sycamore Holler

I will bring the farmer's daughter
Back to Sycamore Holler

It was down by the river's edge
I see the campfire flicker
Four dead men lay behind
As I leave that campsite with her

Now our children play in a forked stream
Out in Sycamore Holler
With a boy like me and a girl like her
We'll always be together

I sure love the farmer's daughter
Down in Sycamore Holler

They called him Skeet, his name was Bill
Corporal William Howard Campbell,
they never knew and never will
He did his time with the 101
They took a simple country boy
and taught him how to use a gun
After four long years in service,
two tours in Vietnam
The country that he served so well
doesn't seem to give a damn
That he's a homeless man

He has a son, lives in L.A.
He hasn't spoke to him in twenty years,
he just don't know what to say
He had a loving wife, she was his right hand
Till the nightmares and the memories
became more that she could stand
Now he has everything he owns
in a worn-out shopping cart
He's never begged for anything,
he just doesn't have the heart
He's just a homeless man

Now in this land of plenty
where so many have it all,
He sleeps in an alley half a block from city hall

They found him there one cold November night
Though he'd won so many battles,
this time he'd lost the fight
No one seemed to care that he was gone
They laid him in a pauper's grave
with a tiny little stone
As a young man and his mother
sat alone and cried,
Holding the Silver Star medallion
someone found there by his side
He was a homeless man

He was just a homeless man

Where did the morning go?
I meant to do much more with this life
I was born a clear and sunny day
Now evening shadows fall my way
Where did the morning go?

It was dawn when my babies cried
Now they're able to walk out on their own
I've had a family that I've always loved
And I made peace with my God above
But where did the morning go?

I've held hands that I loved to hold
But an evenin' came when I had to let 'em go
I still write the words down to my songs
But it's different voices that sing along
Where did the morning go?

We show up every morning,
our uniforms are pressed
All spit and polish, we have to look our best
This message that we carry
is a heavy load to bear
For those who pay the price with sacrifice
We have to show we care

Everybody has a duty, a way they can shine
The ones who go over there
and those who stay behind
Some ain't coming back, reality is grim
It's up to me and Sergeant Jack
To break the news to them

We're the two soldiers no one wants to see
In a plain black sedan
rolling slowly down the street
Past the toys and the bikes
beneath the maple trees
Where fading yellow ribbons
wave gently in the breeze
A loved one's in a better place
They won't be back no more
Now there's two soldiers at the door

Sometimes they see us coming
and fall down on their knees
Tears are overflowing,
crying “no, God, please.”
Sometimes they just stand there, silent as a stone
With no surprise in their eyes
Like they knew it all along

See the soldiers on the tarmac, ready to deploy
Husbands and wives with little girls and boys
Say a silent prayer they all come back alive
And never see Jack and me pull up in their drive

(Instrumental)

Time is a funny thing you know
No matter where you are it comes and goes
I've lived my life one day at a time
Time is all I've had and all I know

Home is a state of mind it's said
Four walls and a roof inside your head
To some it might seem strange,
but I'm too damn old to change
Now the warden says the state requires my bed

It's been fifty years since they sent me here
I had forty-nine more to go
But a week from today
They'll open this gate for good
And I'll have to walk away
But Lord knows I'd stay if I could

I won't last a day out there alone
This prison cell's the only home I've known
The world outside has changed,
but the one inside's the same
I'll have to find a way to get back home

I was thinkin' 'bout Mary as I left Tucumcari
With four hours to make Santa Fe
I know she's been hopin' I'll quit this damn ropin'
But that's one thing that she'd never say

It's a cowboy's addiction, the smell and the friction
Of the rope when it's dallied and taut
Every year it gets rougher,
but her love is tougher
Than any steer I've ever fought

It's more than a livin', it's been my whole life
Taken and given the pleasure and strife…
But I've known all along that this day would come
Guess my ropin' days are done

There's headers and heelers, addicts and dealers
And Crown to cover the fear
I been a saint and a sinner, a loser and winner
So where do I go from here?

I could be home by daybreak if I turn around now
I'God boys, it's been fun
Tell the girls in Nogales I'm headed to Dallas
Now my ropin' days are done

Blues on blues, pain on pain
Nothing to do but watch it rain
Tears fall down from missing you, oh Lord
Color you gone and color me blue on blue

Five years ago when we first met
I never dreamed that I'd regret
Loving you the way I do, oh Lord
You fell for another and left me blue on blue

Running out of tears, running out of heart
Too tired to make another start
Don't wanna find somebody new, oh Lord
Cause I'm not over you, I'm blue on blue

The day may come when I'll try again
With a little luck, next time I'll win
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose, oh Lord
When you hit rock bottom there's nothing but blues
on blues

Blues on blues, pain on pain
Nothing to do but watch it rain
Tears fall down from missing you, oh Lord
Color you gone and color me blue on blue

If I can find a river or a fast little stream
Or a big ole high mountain
with a little lake in between

A v-bottom boat, a v-bottom boat
A v-bottom boat'll take me
where I want to go

Ol' Noah cried out to the Lord,
“God what shall I do?”
God said to build a v-bottom boat and
you'll get through

A v-bottom boat, a v-bottom boat
A v-bottom boat'll take you
where you want to go

Cars, planes and trains can take you
almost anywhere
But a v-bottom boat is how I'd rather
get there

A v-bottom boat, a v-bottom boat
A v-bottom boat'll take me
where I want to go

One day I'll find the stream that leads up to
my Savior fair
I'll ride in a v-bottom boat to meet him there

You keep saying things I don't understand
I try real hard to never let it show
Your sophisticated ways have left me in a daze
I guess I'm just another gravel in the road

My friends all tried to tell me when I met you
You're needn't think you'll ever keep that girl
They said your high-class taste would lay my
life to waste
And I'd never be accepted in your world

I've started to believe what they've been saying
It's becoming clear our feelings
aren't the same
You keep trying to change me
from what I choose to be
But you gotta know that
I don't play that game