Standard (EADGBE)

Intro

It's knowing that your door is always

open and your path is free to walk

that makes me tend to leave my sleeping

bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch

And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and

bonds and the ink stains that have dried upon some line

That keeps you in the backroads by the

rivers of my mem'ry, that keeps you ever

gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy

Planted on their columns now that bind me

Or something that somebody said

Because they think we fit together walkin'.

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing or

Forgiving, when I walk along some railroad track and find

That you're moving on the backroads by the

Rivers of my mem'ry, and 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 crying to her

Mother, 'cause she turned and I was gone.

I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my

Face, and the summer sun might burn be 'till I'm blind,

But not to where I cannot see you

Walkin' on the backroads, by the rivers flowing

Gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back from the

Gurglin', cracklin' cauldron in some trainyard;

My beard a roughning coal pile and a

Dirty had pulled low across my face.

Through cupped hands 'round a tin can I

Pretend I hold you to my breast and find

That you're waving from the backroads by the

Rivers of my memory, ever smilin' ever

Gentle on my mind.

C6: x322x0 (I use the finger on the G string to mute the B string.

C9: x32030 It makes for a faster change between the Cmaj7 and C6)