ballad of barbara

Johnny Cash

In a southern town where I was born that's where I got my education
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods and I wondered at creation
I recall the sun in the skies of blue and the smell of green things growin'
And I lived everyday and I lived anyway anyway the wind was blowin'
But then I heard of a cultured city life breath taking lofty steeples
And the day I called myself a man I left my land and my people

And I rambled north and I rambled east and I tested and I tasted
And a girl or two took me around and around but always left me wasted
In the world that's all concrete and steel with nothin' green ever growin'
Where the buildings hide the risin' sun and stop the free wind from blowin'
Where they sleep all day and they wake all night to a world of drink and laughter
I met that girl that I thought would be the one that I was after

In a soft blue gown and a formal tux beneath that lofty steeple
He said do you Barbara take this man will you be one of his people
And she said I will and she said I do and the world looked mighty pretty
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat cause she loved the noisy city
Then the days grew cold beneath the yellow sky and I longed for green things growin'
And I talked of home and my people there but she'd not agreed a goin'

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me with the look that wasn't very pretty
And she turned into concrete and steel and she said I'll take the city
Now the cars go by on the Interstate and my pack is on my shoulder
And I'm goin' home where I belong much wiser now and older