lp discography - covers & lyrics

1.

TURN IT ON TURN IT ON TURN IT ON

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
Johnny got up one mornin' he went down to the company store
Got him a big box of bullets to fit into his 44
The storeman said son are you gonna work you know you owe me too much to stop
John said I got a little working to do but I ain't goin' by your clock

People said John was a slacker cause he wouldn't fight in their war
A man wasn't much if he wouldn't fight back in nineteen forty and four
The doctor said John was just too sick to go
But the people said that he was a coward
And one of the men makin' fun of him was a feller named a Milton Howard

Milton was down at the Cold Spring a drinkin' from a Mason jar
He said John you better get yourself to work you gonna fool around till you get fired
John blew the dust from his old 44 put two holes in Milton's head
When Johnny walked off to get some more shootin' done
That old Cold Spring was a runnin' with red

Next guy he met was a Steagall boy and the boy had a hammer in his hand
John said son you should've built yourself a box
Cause you're aheaded for the Promised Land
Steagall fell down to his knees to pray and he cried Lord Johnny please don't shoot
Before he got half way to sayin' amen well old John shot him out of his boots
[ dobro ] Word went out thru the County that old John had lost his head
The people were running and screaming there were seven of 'em layin' there dead
Johnny hid out in a farmhouse he had satisfaction in his eyes
He said I know they're coming to get me boys but they ain't a gonna take me alive

People gathered round that old farmhouse was the relatives of all them dead
Now John said if the sheriff comes thru that door I'm gonna fill him plum full of lead
The sheriff kicked down that old farmhouse door but old John's gun would not shoot
Johnny just smiled at the sheriff and said the Lord must think a lot of you

They took old John to the jailhouse he entered in a guilty plea
The judge said death in the electric chair cause it's murder in the first degree
John's last meal was a lot of fried chicken cold beans and a baby squash
He ate every bite that they brought him then he smiled and said I thank you all a lot
[ dobro ] They put old John in the electric chair they shaved his ankles and his head
The preacher said son you got something to say in a minute you're a gonna be dead
John said I ain't no coward and the people know that I won't run
Then Johnny smiled up at the warden and said turn it on turn it on turn it on
**********

2.

SOUVENIRS

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
Take these arms of mine throw them away
They're just souvenirs of some other days
Take these lips of mine they're useless to me
They're just souvenirs of things that used to be

They're just souvenirs and who needs 'em now
They're just bits and pieces of my yesterday anyhow
Take this old heart of mine it's been beating too long
It's just a souvenir of something that went wrong

Take my yesterdays the minutes the hours
They're just souvenirs they'll fade like the flowers
Take these eyes before I see her again
They're just souvenirs of things that might have been

They're just souvenirs and who needs 'em now...
Old T's just a souvenir of something that went wrong
**********

3.

PAMELA BROWN

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
I'm the guy who didn't marry pretty Pamela Brown
Educated well intentioned good girl in our town
I wonder where I'd be today if she had loved me too
Probably be driving kids to school

I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown
All of my good times and all my roamin' around
One of these days I might come rambling through your town
And I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown

I've seen the lights of cities and I've been inside their doors
I've sailed to foreign countries and I walked upon their shores
I guess the guy she married was the best part of my luck
She dug him cause he drove a pickup truck

And I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown...
[ guitar ] I don't have to tell you just how beautiful she was
Everything it takes to get a country boy in love
Lord I hope she's happy cause she sure deserves to be
Especially for what she did for me

And I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown...
I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown
**********

4.

BOURBON MAN

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
(I have a very good friend in Nashville Tennessee who is a semiprofessional wino
And during one of our recent and frequent conversations
We got to talk about his religious philosophy
And as far as I could determine this is the way he feels about it)

Lord can a drunk go to heaven
Well frankly I don't see why not
If the Lord loves the weak and the weary
Well how come he can't love a sot

Now I don't drink to hurt anybody
Why I love everybody I meet
I can quit any time but I don't want to
And in fact I quit three times last week

Now lemme tell you bout some of them preachers
Lord you know some of 'em ain't worth a dime
Why they're flirtin' with all of them widders
Hmm yeah and one is a widder of mine

Oh I hear people prayin' so fancy
Why they'd be better off a sendin' you mail
Lord if they could've heard me last Sunday
Well I'd've prayed 'em right out of that jail

Now Lord if a drunk gets to heaven
To walk on that great Golden Strand
Would you give me a spot and the shade of a tree
And remember I'm a bourbon man
**********

5.

PROMISE AND THE DREAM

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
There's a sadness in your singing I have never heard before
There's a dying in your living that exists from shore to shore
There's a coward in your character that I have never seen
America what happened to the promise and the dream

The promise was that men could live and worship as they please
The dream was for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free
We closed so many doors and banned the prayers on many scenes
America what happened to the promise and the dream

There's a numbness in your feeling for the disadvantaged poor
There's a weakness in your strenght because your leaders are unsure
There are shadows in the light that once was freedom's brightest beam
America what happened to the promise and the dream

The promise was that men could live and worship as they please
The dream was for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free
You closed so many doors and banned the prayer on many scenes
America what happened to the promise and the dream

There's a hating in your loving for the permanence of vows
Tomorrow doesn't matter it's all for the here and now
Your most important word called love is now a dirty thing
America what happened to the promise and the dream

The promise was that men could live...
**********

6.

SHE GAVE HER HEART TO JETHRO

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
I guess you know Jethro went crazy we've all been crazy sometimes
They fixed up his lungs and his fever but they could not fix up his mind
He married a beautiful redhead of women they say she's a pearl
She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole damned world

Well Jethro had someone to talk to they were monsters and little green men
He never talked to his woman now he spent all his time with his friends
In the evenings she'd drive off and leave him she tossed back her long pretty curls
She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole damned world

Some friends came and begged her to leave him they said Jethro belongs in a home
She said my heart is Jethro's but my God-given body is my own
Now some of her lovers were strangers she gave everybody a whirl
She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole damned world
[ dobro ] I know some will condemn me for writin' this song of a man and his wife
A man's not writin' if he can't relate all the things that he sees in his life
I know some will condemn me for cursin' but much can be said for this girl
Who gave her heart to old Jethro and her body to the whole damned world
**********

7.

COOT MARSEILLES BLUES

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
(This story was told to me by Jerry Clover at the 1971 discjockey convention
I told Jerry I's gonna write a song about it
My brother Hillman gonna play the cigarette paper and the comb play) [ paper & comb ] Coot Marseilles was an old black man from down Mississippi way
He worked out in the white man's yard and he loved to sing and play
Ol' Coot worked hard God rest his soul he never was much to roam
His entire band was an old guitar a cigarette paper and a comb
[ paper & comb ] Now ol' Coot had one song that he would sing when his long days were put in
There ain't nobody knows that song now cause I reckon that it died with him
His songs were made up 'o dry bones from pain and sweat and tears
And Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy was sometimes all you'd hear

Now on Saturdays ol' Coot didn't work much 'cepten he built a fire in the stove
And when he get through he'd mosey on down and sit by the gravel road
He'd hum that song as he walked along with the faraway look in his eyes
And he sat there by the road all day watched them fine Ford cars go by

Now on Saturday night the white folks danced and ol' Coot he'd pick and sing
He had an old RC bottle neck that he'd slide up and down them strings
Now Coot didn't care much for lyrics he just made 'em up as he went along
And Lord I wish they had tape back then cause I'd sure love to hear them songs

Well his clothes were old and his hair was gray and hard work had bent his back
His songs were never recognized by statuettes or flags
His songs were all about the working man and Coot never owned a tie
The only thing he ever really had to do was die
[ paper & comb ] Now ol' Coot's gone and maybe I'm wrong to bring it all back again
But I know his friends down in Mississippi sure thought a lot of him
So rock on Coot and enjoy your rest your long day's work is done
And if they got Fords up in Heaven sir I sure hope you're driving one
[ paper & comb ] Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lord
**********

8.

MONKEY THAT BECAME PRESIDENT

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
I was there on the day the monkey came into this world
His face was round and reddish and his hair was slightly curled
He didn't look too different from the others I had seen
Who'd've thought he was the answer to the nation's dream

At first he didn't seem to be intelligent at all
Each time he'd start to walk about he'd stumble and he'd fall
My first impression was to be a most mistaken thought
Lord Almighty what's this little hairy monkey wrought

Because I witnessed his departure from his mother's womb
I felt inclined to check his progress every afternoon
One day the keeper of the Zoo called in the live TV
Brinkley said I think you'll be amazed at what you'll see

The monkey walked and talked and waved his arms about his head
In the corner was a stack of books that he had read
An Educated Monkey said the papers cross the land
It was more than weary sociologists could stand

Oh his fame was universal he was on the Carson Show
People talked about him kindly everywhere he'd go
His insight was amazing his philosophy was fair
He became a politician welcomed everywhere

His wit was not to be compared with any mind intact
He'd lace a phrase with irony and blend it all with fact
Conservatives applauded and the liberals were entranced
The bigots and the integrationists were in his camp

Nobody dared to meet him in an open press debate
He was nominated by the folks from every state
Yes a monkey was the President though maybe not the first
There was peace and harmony throughout the universe

The dream I had last night has been related as it came
As for interpretation well it's really very plain
Would you rather have a monkey up in Washington DC
Or have those people making monkeys out of you and me
**********

9.

PRATT STREET

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
Pratt Street that street where I was born and raised

I know that no one knows me as I walk along this street
Revisiting the town that made a traveler out of me
I hear a mother screaming at her kid that's done some wrong
Daddy's gonna bust your hide when he gets home

Well somewhere beans're cooking and they smell about half done
I see a young girl hanging clothes to dry out in the sun
She sees me looking at her and I guess it makes her sore
She says ain't you ever seen a bra before

Pratt Street that street where I was born and raised

Two women lean across an old white weather-beaten fence
One smiles at me and waves her beer and says hey come on in
She tosses back her head when she discovers I won't speak
Hey you're not allowed to sell things on this street

Well the factories're hummin' as they did so long ago
Pratt Street is now blanketed with thirty years of smoke
An old man tries in vain to put a muffler on a car
With a hammer and a rusty pair of pliers

Pratt Street that street where I was born and raised

I flag a taxi down and ride on back to my hotel
Things may change in heaven but they'd never change in hell
They say you can't go home again but brother I was there
And I suspect the people just don't care

Pratt Street that street where I was born and raised
**********

10.

HIGH STEPPIN' PROUD

(Hillman Hall) « © '71 Leahrae Music, BMI »
I was a high steppin' proud man one time
King of the sidewalk fed all the girls a line
You came along and love laid a heavy hand on me
High steppin' proud man went down to his knees

For a while I enjoyed just bein' under your thumb
But after a while the nerve of love grew numb
Then I knew my heart was changing cryin' out long and loud
To once again become a man high steppin' proud

High steppin' proud man down on my knees
Beckon to your every wish and your every need
Oh I know it won't be long before I break those vows
And once again become a man high steppin' proud
[ 12str guitar ] There's a lot of things in life I'm glad I didn't miss
And your good good love rates mighty high on the list
But my restless spirit and a weddin' band don't get along somehow
Especially since I long to be high steppin' proud

High steppin' proud man down on my knees...
**********

11.

ME AND JESUS

(Tom T. Hall) « © '71 Hallnote Music, BMI / Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »
Well me and Jesus got our own things going
Me and Jesus got it all worked out
Me and Jesus got our own things going
We don't need anybody to tell us what it's all about

I know a man once was a sinner
I know a man that once was a drunk
I know a man once was a loser
But he went out one day and made an altar out of a stump

Me and Jesus got our own things going...

Jesus brought me thru all of my troubles
Jesus brought me thru all of my trials
Jesus brought me thru all of my heartaches
And I know that Jesus ain't a gonna forsake me now

Me and Jesus got our own things going...

We can't afford any fancy preaching
We can't afford any fancy church
We can't afford any fancy singing
But you know Jesus got a lotta poor people out a doin' his work

Me and Jesus got our own things going...
Me and Jesus got our own things going...
**********