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"Gentle On My Mind" Lyrics

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(John Hartford)

Well, it's knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to keep my sleeping bag rolled up
And stashed behind your couch.

And it's knowing I'm not shacked by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind.

It's not clinging to the rocks
And I'd be planted on their columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking.

It's just knowin' that the world will not be cursin' or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind.

Though the wheet fields and the clothes lines
And the junk yards and the highways come between us
And some other woman cryin' to her mama
'Cause she turned and I was gone.

I still might run in silence tears of joy might stain my face
And a summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind.

I dipped my cup of soap back
From a gurgling crackling caldron in some train yard
My beard, a roughen coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face.

Through cupped hands round a tin can
I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind. mhm...
song info:
Verified yes
LanguageEnglish
GenreCountry
Rank
Duration00:03:32
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Copyright ©
Writer
Lyrics licensed byLyricFind
Added
Last updatedMarch 8th, 2022
About"Gentle on My Mind" is a song written by John Hartford, which won four 1968 Grammy Awards. Hartford himself won the award for Best Folk Performance and Best Country & Western Song (Songwriter). The other two awards Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male and Best Country & Western Recording, went to American country music singer Glen Campbell for his version of Hartford's song. It was released in June 1967 as the only single from the album of the same name. It was re-released in July 1968 to more success. Glen Campbell's version has received over 5 million plays on the radio. Campbell used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme to his television variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour between 1969 and 1972. Dean Martin's version, recorded in 1968, was a major hit in the United Kingdom; three versions of the song, Campbell's, Martin's and Patti Page's, all reached the top ten of the U.S. easy listening chart in 1968. The song was ranked number 16 on BMI's Top 100 Songs of the Century.

Hartford reported that he was inspired to write the song after seeing the film Doctor Zhivago when his own memories took over, and that it took about thirty minutes to write down.

Campbell heard Hartford's original version on the radio and decided at once that he wanted to record it. At the time, Campbell was under contract with Capitol Records as a solo artist but had little success in establishing a name for himself. Campbell gathered some of his fellow Wrecking Crew session players to come into the Capitol studio to record a demo version that he could pitch to his producer Al De Lory. Between phrases and stanzas, Campbell would yell instructions to the players. He then left the rough recording for his producer to listen to. De Lory fell in love, not only with the song, but with the recording itself. Without telling Campbell, he took the tape back into the studio and removed the unwanted verbiage from between the phrases. He then released the demo recording, which became a mega-hit for Campbell when it was released a second time in the wake of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".

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