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Gone Away Backward

by Robbie Fulks

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1.
Corn in the crib won’t turn your dollar green A dollar won’t get you high Some days a drop is all a body needs Some days the bottle drains dry Pockets of change don’t drive my worry down Diamonds don’t make me shine It’s a short life and a long time underground I’ll trade you money for wine I’ve seen your towns from a long black Lincoln, boys Back when copper was king Ten years I stood on this same old corner, boys I never want for a thing Pockets of change don’t drive my worry down Diamonds don’t make me shine It’s a short life and a long time underground I’ll trade you money for wine Wild were the nights when I was rolling, boys No hunger unsatisfied Feared was my name in Elko County, boys Now they just walk on by The banker, he spares a quarter for my cup His trouble’s deeper than mine That way of life, boys, there ain’t gold enough I’ll trade you money for wine See how the rain washes the sulphur dust Off to the wide blue sea Freed from the rock, the copper flies to where No miner ever may see Shallow your cares, in vain your industry So says the wide blue sea I never burden God on your account Don’t waste your prayers on me I’ve seen a man of wealth and family Scrimp till his hair’s gone grey Laid in the ground just like I’m gonna be He might have drunk it away Pockets of change don’t drive my worry down Diamonds don’t make me shine It’s a short life and a long time underground I’ll trade you money for wine
2.
Where I Fell 03:14
Daddy used to catch his supper in this river, now you can’t swim it Smells like a 20-ton truck full of paint thinner sank down in it Come visit a spell, see the plaque to our war fallen Nothin’ but a good time. Some guy in Bombay’s runnin’ that press I used to hate Now I sling hash for what-all spills off the interstate We sold the family store, left the building standing You can see the outline Where I fell Might look like hell From a jet airplane or the top of some big hotel I’d’ve chose a place more fine But the choice was never mine So I dwell Where I fell. Skinny-hipped Jane with her long black lashes and a kid of ten Comes by for some TV and to leg it down with me every now and then She’s a good ole girl I shoulda long sent walkin’ The timing never worked right. And it’s the same sad crew at Delilah’s shoutin’ over the redneck band Game score, tea party, world war, I don’t give a good goddamn That’s me crossing the courthouse lawn about midnight Trippin’ on the curbside.
3.
Long I Ride 03:19
It’s ryegrass in the wintertime, flowers in the spring But Texas in the summer is nigh on suffering I went up on Jackson Hill at a diner I sat down And I waved at every stranger just to move the air around It’s long to ride for the little I gain Hey when I left that Brooklyn girl, I never thought it through She had silk brocade in her bedroom and a job that paid for two. Think I’ll get down the old guitar and see what I may find Take a dollar off some lawyer on the number 7 line. It’s long to ride for the little I gain These New York folks’ll treat you kind, if your wallet’s in your hand But a 6-string on your shoulder could be the devil’s brand They’ll put themselves above you, but for all their strut and brag I’d trade every brick on Wall Street for one Black Mountain Rag. It’s long to ride for the little I gain A road back to my childhood, if I could only go There’s a little girl that stole my heart and I think she’d like to know But the road it goes but one way, and the only goal in sight Is to make a bit more in the daytime than I drink down at night. It’s long to ride for the little I gain They say the Norfolk girls are fair, and they all sing right on key But I went down and never found one sang as good as me. And they say that there’s a wondrous land for any good man that dies And if it’s got drink and women...well then I’ll be surprised. It’s long to ride for the little I gain
4.
Back in the driveway The end of the workday And how fast that world disappears A fresh lawn, a pine tree A neighbor just like me Who’s worked all his life to get here A man climbs as high as he can But his heart belongs where it began I can see in my mind’s eye A shack on a hillside And a mean billy-goat on a chain Dad doing battle With dirt hard as gravel And summers the crops never came We’d shoot down a pheasant in flight And sing songs about Jesus all night That’s where I’m from Where time passes slower That’s where I’m from Where it’s yes ma’am and no sir You can’t tell I’m country Just you look closer It’s deep in my blood Two cars, a picket fence That’s where I’ve come Dirt roads and double-wides That’s where I’m from Night school on a fast track And no cause to look back That place put a scar on my soul And I swore my young ones Would never know hunger Now the good life is all they can know Well, I’ve watched them grow, now I see One thing separates them from me ..... A white collar, a necktie That’s where I’ve come Half-naked in the moonshine That’s where I’m from f you’ve ever heard Hank Williams sing Well, you know the whole blessed thing .... A long way down a hard road That’s where I’ve come Someplace I can’t go home to That’s where I’m from
5.
One year free and single, and my how we’ve grown You swing with the stars, while I’m in this bar, drinking alone Yes you’re flying high, live it up while you can But when you get to the bottom - don’t reach for my hand. Don’t think ‘cause I’ve fallen, fallen I’ll remain Time is the cure, this stuff that they pour just helps with the pain Your wild thirst for pleasure has made my despair But when you get to the bottom, girl I won’t be there. You’re living like there’s no tomorrow I live like there’s only yesterday But who shall break free of this sorrow And who’ll have a lifetime to pay? Just tear it up crazy angel, let your reckless heart roam And when you get to the bottom, you’ll know you’ve come home. When you get to the bottom, you’ll know that you’re home.
6.
7.
Imogene 05:34
Hey now My Imogene Out here on your back porch I been scratching at your screen Hey now You sure smell fine Things I'll never tell you I’ve been doing to you in my mind Maybe I’m a stone heart, maybe I’m kind Maybe I love you, maybe I’m lyin' I could rip your lid off and make you scream If you would be my long-legged Imogene Don’t that old moon sail high Clear across the meadow I hear your fiddle cry Playin' on That "Maiden’s Prayer" Shakes me from my sleeping Makes me want to slip away from here The man at my job’s got nothing to say He’s from out the jungles of Somalia I been in the kitchen up to my knees In jalapeno hambone and black-eyed peas Hey now My Imogene Out here on your back porch With a jar of sweet Jim Beam Hey now It’d sure be fine If we could lose your old man And do what I been doing in my mind Then you could be my long-legged Imogene
8.
9.
In a dusty shack high in the Blue Ridge Mountains It was tough work, brown dirt, and bluegrass songs Sweet hickory filled the air, Daddy’s love was hard but fair If I knew how rich I was I’d not have gone But the city called my name and I came runnin’ With my young man’s hopes and my daddy’s old guitar I played the dives and paid some dues, singing every song I knew And them homesick ones I sang the best by far Now I’ve seen the sun go down on the streets of New York town And I’ve watched it from the hills of old Virginia Beauty’s what the eye beholds, one man’s dirt’s another’s gold Oh but sometimes, the grass is really greener. Well the record company man confessed he liked me But he’d have to shave a few rough edges down Cut my hair like Brooks and Dunn’s, trade the banjo for some drums Cause no one would buy that old high lonesome sound Now I don’t know just what this deal has got me I’ve gained not a fan and I lost the ones I had I’ve worn my heart right through my sleeve singing a song I don’t believe I believe I’ll go back home to Mom and Dad. In a dusty shack high in the Blue Ridge Mountains And when I die it’s on this farm they’ll lay me down And the hills will hear my song, cause it’s there that I belong Man, you just can’t shake old roots from Southern ground.
10.
Stick and frame, a patch of earth Some china plates, a band of gold A few shared things of little worth And now they’re all that’s left to hold She hides her tears, I do my best As I pull slowly from the drive Young in love, we lay undressed Now we can’t meet each other’s eyes Sad goodbyes, shattered dreams Darker skies I don’t think I’ve seen I thought love was just one sweet song Guess I got it wrong Houston tollway to I-10 Never looked this bleak before Why’s the feeling never strong as when You can’t have her anymore
11.
Bright blazed the sun on the day you were born Red ran the flowering vine I felt it then like the prick of a thorn Someone so tender and kind Watching. I left your mother a-sleeping and still To walk for a while ‘neath the sky I climbed the side of a crooked old hill Reaching the crest I did spy Soldiers. As you press on to the future’s fair land Child, spare a glance back where you came For over your cradle a lone figure stands History tells us his name: Adam. Had you the wings of the angel you seem O’er these hospital walls you would fly And my so-called crimes would go small like a dream And there to your wondering eye... A mountain face, lashed jagged by the sea. The plow’s steady churn, the impress of hooves in the clay. A rusted gray shed, jammed with gunpowder and gold. A vine-clotted field where families once gathered to die. Seaports, depots, where the goods of all lands freely flow. A signpost to a town no longer there. An arrow asail that no man shot nor can slow. Forms mighty and small, scrabbling ‘round looking for food. The onrushing plains, the soft lights just beyond Ten thousand the same, one child who is not. The chair by the wall, a-rocking the dreadful day through. The hand of love withdrawn: the many disguises of God.
12.
There’s a meadow tucked deep in the mountain Where the songbird and eagle fly free And a lone man there carries a blossom To his darling sweet Rose Avery It was there on that mountain one summer From a girl to a woman she grew And many was the heart laid before her But only young William’s was true. CH Oh it’s on (on through the rain) And on (And the chill of the spring) Through the dark cheerless winter and on Oh love is a flower unfaded When the bright rose of summer is gone. Over the ocean his country called William And home it returned him too late For three years away is too many For a handsome young woman to wait So he built him a home on that mountain Years passing, another he chose From his lips came the vow to be faithful But the name his heart whispered was “Rose.” Came children, now the seasons fast fleeting In the town they’d oft-times be seen And for William a smile upon meeting Old thoughts long forgotten, it seemed But alone in the long evening shadows As the chains of the watchful day fell Oh the dreams of that long-ago summer Too sweet but too hurtful to tell Now a summer and many has ended On the mountain the young dreams are done For the kids have moved on to the city And the old ones to God, all but one. In the meadow he kneels now in silence His love at last is set free It’s there in the tear-stained blossom On a stone marked “Rose Avery.”

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released August 27, 2013

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Robbie Fulks Chicago, Illinois

Robbie Fulks is a recording artist, instrumentalist, & songwriter living in Chicago. His most recent release, Upland Stories, earned wide-spread recognition & 2 Grammy® nominations. His early work helped define the 90s "alt-country" movement while his newer work extends that tradition with old-time rambles, reflections on love, & the troubles the people. ... more

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