I'm tired of this dirty old city Entirely too much work and never enough play And I'm tired of these dirty old sidewalks I think I'll walk off my steady job today Chorus: So turn me loose, set me free Somewhere in the middle of Montana Gimme all I've got coming to me And keep your retirement And your, so called, social security Big City turn me loose and set me free I've been working every day since I was twenty I ain't got a thing to show for anything I've done Some folks never work and they've got plenty I think it's time girls like me had some fun (Chorus) Big City turn me loose and set me free

And you know the sun's settin' fast, And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts. Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye, But hold on to your lover, 'Cause your heart's bound to die. Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town. Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town, Goodnight. Up the street beside that red neon light, That's where I met my baby on one hot summer night. He was the tender and I ordered a beer, It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here. But you know the sun's settin' fast, And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts. Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye, But hold on to your lover, 'Cause your heart's bound to die. Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town. Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town, Goodnight. It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss. I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist. Over there is where I bought my first car. It turned over once but then it never went far. And I can see the sun's settin' fast, And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts. Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye, But hold on to your lover, 'Cause your heart's bound to die. Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town. Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town, Goodnight. I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa. They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall. I bring them flowers about every day, But I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say. If they could see how the sun's settin' fast, And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts. Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye, But hold on to your lover, 'Cause your heart's bound to die. Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town. Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town, Goodnight. Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly. But I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes. I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go. I love you, my town, you'll always live in my soul. But I can see the sun's settin' fast, And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts. Well, go on, I gotta kiss you goodbye, But I'll hold to my lover, 'Cause my heart's 'bout to die. Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town. I can see the sun has gone down on my town, on my town, Goodnight. Goodnight.

She grew up plain and simple in a farming town Her daddy played the fiddle and use to do the calling when they had hoedowns She said the neighbors would come And they'd move all my grandma's furniture 'round And there'd be twenty or more there on the old wooden floor Dancing to a country sound The Carters and Jimmy Rodgers played her favourite songs And on Saturday nights there was a radio show And she would sing along And I'll never forget her face when she revealed to me That she'd dreamed about singing at The Grand Ol' Opry Her eyes, oh how they sparkled when she sang those songs While she was hanging the clothes on the line I was a kid just a humming along Well, I'd be playing in the grass, To her what might've seemed obliviously But there ain't no doubt about it, she sure made her mark on me She played old gospel records on the phonograph She turned them up loud and we'd sing along But those days have passed Just now that I am older it occurs to me That I was singing in the grandest opry And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me 'Til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee And In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free And My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below But I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me As the sound of my Mama's Opry And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me 'Til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee And In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free And My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below But I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me As the sound of my Mama's Opry

Pretty paper Pretty ribbons of blue. (Spoken) man oh man, I just love christmas It's just so darn neat. I kinda wish every day was christmas, Except christmas eve and the fourth of july. We wouldn't want to miss out on the fireworks, would we? When I was a kid, we used to get the christmas catalog from montgomery wards in chicago. Sometimes we'd get it as early as late august. It was the big book of wishes, hopes and desires. My three brothers and I were allotted twenty-five bucks a piece, including tax. So I'd make up a different christmas list every night From the first of september 'til the twenty-forth of december. Matter of fact, let me present you with my christmas credentials. When I was three years old, at least that's what my mother told me, I ate an entire ornament. I ate a big red one, I thought it was an apple. They kinda freaked out and was gonna take me to the hospital But they couldn't stop me from laughing so they just left me alone. So I guess I still got that christmas in me all the time, you know? One year, I got a wooden roly-poly for christmas, You know the things you knock down and they bounce right back up. They made 'em out of wood back then, that's how old I am. Nowadays, they make 'em out of plastic. My mom says "they just don't make 'em like that anymore". and I says, "no ma they don't". Then there was the year I came home only eave from the army, From germany to marry my highschool sweetheart on the day after christmas. My little brother billy, who was twelve at the time, Had just gotten his first job so he was able to afford to buy some christmas presents For his brothers and his mom and dad out of his own pocket. Billy had a job selling subscriptions for the chicago tribune. He told me this guy named rocky would pick him up in a station wagon, Him and some other boys, and he'd take 'em out to some strange neighborhood And drop 'em off and he gave them this whole spiel to give their potential customers. Supposedly their little brother had won a free trip to our nation's capital washington, d.c., But he couldn't go on the trip if his older brother wouldn't accompany him So if you would please buy a subscription to the chicago tribune then my little brother will be happy. Wow, what a shyster! some people'll do anything to get to the whitehouse. Then there was the year that my mom and dad gave me my first guitar. Ah man it was gorgeous, I still got the thing. It was a like aqua blue. kinda dark aqua blue with a cream colored heart. was a silvertone from montgomery wards. the model was called kentucky blue and man when I saw that sitting under the tre Ust couldn't wait. First year so I didn't know how to play it, I'd just stand in from of the mirror with a string around my neck with that guitar and I'd try to look like elvis. Then my brother dave taught me a couple of chords, Now I'm here in your living room singing and talking to you. It's funny how things work out. So-a whyn't you go find a stranger and extend your hand to 'em. If you see somebody looks like they ain't doin' quite as well as you, slip 'em a buck, 'Specially if they don't ask for spare change. Go buy your honey a cuckoo clock or a musical snow shaking water ball, That when you wind it up it plays, "I want you, I need you, I love ya with all my heart." 'Cause after all, hell man, it's christmas. Away in a manger no crib for a bed. The little lord jesus lay down his sweet head. The stars in the sky look down where he lay. The little lord jesus asleep on the (1-2) hay. (Spoken) merry christmas everybody. (Words finally transcribed by fancy nancy)

All the snow has turned to water Christmas days have come and gone Broken toys and faded colours Are all that's left to linger on I hate graveyards and old pawn shops For they always bring me tears I can't forgive the way they robbed me Of my childhood souvenirs Memories, they can't be boughten They can't be won at carnivals for free Well it took me years to get those souvenirs And I don't know how they slipped away from me Broken hearts and dirty windows Make life difficult to see That's why last night and this morning Always look the same to me And I hate reading old love letters For they always bring me tears I can't forget the way they robbed me Of my sweetheart's souvenirs Memories they can't be boughten They can't be won at carnivals for free Well it took me years to get those souvenirs And I don't know how they slipped away from me

Full blown silence in an empty room A former bride and a former groom A folding table and a folding chair A folded hand of poker there All new directions must go everywhere Big round people in a cool little square You can't cut it with a boat or a plane Man, it's gonna take a new train You'll be leaving on a new train Far away from this world of pain And when you look out your window, you'll see Your home, your baby, and your family No melted ice cubes in a paper cup Hell, you'll be happy, you'll be all shook up The friends that greet you will be simple and plain When you step down from that new train Collected volumes of history say Man makes mistakes most everyday The half a pound of chopped ground round Is still a burger when it goes downtown No faded photographs of yesterdays Are in the books that I read these days To fly away from that memory town You must keep both your feet on the ground 'Cause you'll be leaving on a new train Far away from this world of pain And when you look out your window you'll see Your home, your baby, and your family No melted ice cubes in a paper cup Hell, you'll be happy, you'll be all shook up The friends that greet you will be simple and plain When you step down from that new train I'll be leaving on a new train Far away from this world of pain The friends that greet me will be simple and plain When I step down from that new train New train, new train

In an Appalachian, Greyhound station She sits there waiting, in a family way "Goodbye brother, Tell Mom I love her Tell all the others, I'll write someday" From an teenage lover, to an unwed mother Kept undercover, like some bad dream While unwed fathers, they can't be bothered They run like water, from a mountain stream In a cold and gray town, a nurse say's "Lay down" 'This ain't no playground, and this ain't home' But someone's children, out having children In a gray stone building, they're all alone From an teenage lover, to an unwed mother Kept undercover, like some bad dream While unwed fathers, they can't be bothered They run like water, from a mountain stream On somewhere else bound, Smokey Mountain Greyhound She bows her head down, hummin' lullabies 'Your daddy never, meant to hurt you ever' 'He just don't live here, but you've got his eyes' From an teenage lover, to an unwed mother Kept undercover, like some bad dream While unwed fathers, they can't be bothered They run like water, from a mountain stream Well, they run like water, from a mountain stream