Standard (EADGBE)

It's knowing that your door is always open

and your path is free to walk

That makes me tend to leave my

sleepin' bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch

And it's knowin' 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 clingin' to the rocks and ivy planted

on their columns now that bind me

Or somethin' that somebody said because they thought

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 movin' 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 clotheslines

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

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 backroads

By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of of soup back from

a gurglin', cracklin' cauldron in some train yard

My beard a roughnin' coal pile and a dirty hat

pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands round a tin can

I pretend to hold you to my breast and find

That you're wavin' from the backroads by the rivers of my mem'ry

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind