A Tribute To Merle Haggard 1937-2016
The first thing I remember hearing
Was a car radio with a country song playing
A man singing while my mom was steering
A song about heartache and pain
That’s the day the good boy in me died
When you sang “Mama tried”
Country singers come and go
Old songs hang the airwaves and are hardly played
But you put on the best show
People still listen to everything you said
You were a Grand Ole Opry member
Helping people make it through December
Country music would not have done without your voice
You sang small shows and large concerts
You were everyone’s number one choice
You wore different kind of hats, sang from your heart and won hearts
The singing side of a fighter
The fighting side of a songwriter
You jumped freight trains and crossed highways
Kept the wrong company and robbed stores
You were soon to discover crime never pays
When in prison you were tossed
You could have escaped but decided not to leave
You were tired of being a lonesome fugitive
No more freight trains leaving town
For now they put you in San Quentin
But they could not keep you down
For you were good with the pen and not quitting
Soon you would be famous from Muskogee to Rome
After you sang them back home
One day you were free, the tide turned
You took up a guitar, someone gave you a chance
You wrote songs from things in life you had learned
Your songs became hits and not just once
Soon you would become a legend in your own right
Like the legend of Bonnie and Clyde
Wasn’t long before Nashville would admit
That you were as good if not better than Jimmie Rodgers
When you reached country music’s summit
No more working man blues; you had your own bus
Traveling all over the North American blue skies
No more staring at your mama's hungry eyes
Every time am down I play your records
And get that old time rambling fever
I wish i had seen one show to contribute applauds
I wish i had swam next to you at Kern River
Just like you and your ex-wives, am nobody’s fool
I've got swinging doors a jukebox and a bar stool
You got better along the years
Country music changed; not your songs
You still stood out among your peers
You still sang to collect society’s wrongs
Now you’re gone, you took that last freight train
But today i started loving you again
Are the good times really over?
As you go to the last big city
Say hello to George Jones if he is sober
Hope we can hold on to your pal old Willie
He is the last old man from the mountain I think
And I think he will now just stay here and drink
Copyright © Jack Nganga | Year Posted 2016
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