Gentle On My Mind
Glen Campbell
written by the late John Hartford
1967 album Gentle On My Mind
Glen is infamous for changing lyrics
this uses hartfords original lyrics
that include waving instead of waiting
from the back roads.
G|-----|----|----|
D|--x--|----|----|
A|-----|--x-|----| Em7 is one finger on
E|-----|----|----| 5th String 2nd fret
Em(maj7)
Capo 1st fret to match recording
[Intro]
D
D Dmaj7 D6
It's knowing that your door is always open
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And your path is free to walk
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That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
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Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
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And it's knowing I'm not shackled
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By forgotten words and bonds
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And the ink stains that are dried upon some line
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That keeps you in the backroads
Em7 A
By the rivers of my memory
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That keeps you ever gentle on my mind
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It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
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Planted on their columns now that bind me
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Or something that somebody said
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Because they thought we fit together walking
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It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing
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Or forgiving when I walk along some railroad track and find
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That you're moving on the backroads
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By the rivers of my memory
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And for hours you're just gentle on my mind
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Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
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And the junkyards and the highways come between us
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And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
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'Cause she turned and I was gone
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I still might run in silence tears of joy might stain my face
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And the summer sun might burn me 'til I'm blind
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But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the backroads
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By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind
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I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin'
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Cracklin' caldron in some train yard
Em Em(maj7)
My beard a roughing coal pile, and
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A dirty hat pulled low across my face
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Through cupped hands 'round the tin can
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I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
Em Em(maj7)
That you're waveing from the backroads
Em7 A
By the rivers of my memories
Em A D Dmaj7 D6 Dmaj7 D
Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind