Gentle on My Mind

It's knowing that your door is always open And your path is free to walk That makes me tends to leave my sleeping bag rolled up And stashed behind your couch It's knowing I'm not shackled By forgotten words and bars And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines That keeps you on the back roads By the rivers of my memory And keeps you ever gentle On my mind It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy Planted on the columns Now that binds me Or something that somebody said Because they thought we fit together walkin' It's just knowing that the world Will not be cursed or forgiven When I walk along some railway track and find That you're waiting on the back roads By the rivers of my memory For hours you're just gentle On my mind Though the wheat fields And the clothes lines and the junkyards And the highways come between us And some other woman's crying To her mother 'cause she turned And I was gone Well I still might run in silence Tears of joy might stain my face And the summer sun might burn me Till I'm blind But not to where I cannot see You walkin' on the back roads By the rivers flowing gentle On my mind Well dip my cup of soup back From a gurgling bubbling cauldron In some train yard My beard rough and the coal pile And a dirty hat pulled low 'Cross my face Through cupped hand, drivin' tin can I pretend to hold you to my breast and find That you're waiving on the back roads By the rivers of my memory Ever smilin' ever gentle On my mind --- Gentle on My Mind - Billy Bragg and Joe Henry