Merle Haggard

[fox69]

"My Past Is Present"

"My Past Is Present"


The girl I love so much just walked in the door
My past is present but she's not mine anymore
Did she stop by to hurt me or does she even know I'm here
My past is present it'd be that she still cares.

For without her there's no future she's close yet far away
I keep hoping that my tomorrows will catch up with yesterday
For time has stopped my world has stopped since she went away
My past is present I just hope she's back to stay.

For time has stopped my world has stopped since she went away
My past is present I just hope she's back to stay...

 

[fox69]

"My Ramona"

"My Ramona"


Everybody's talking bad about Ramona
They say she's changed a lot since I've been gone
They say she may not be too glad to see me
Cause Ramona doesn't know I'm coming home.

Ah but everybody's wrong about Ramona
They're just going by the way she's actin' now
I just can't believe the things they say about her
Cause Ramona knows the things I wanna allow.

Ramana's gonna be the way she used to be
And I'll be proud of her just like I was before
She never was the kind to like those crowded bars
And Ramona won't be seen there anymore.

They say I may not recognize Ramona
And going by the picture they describe
The life they say she's living sure don't fit her
But I know she's still the same sweet girl inside.

Ramana's gonna be the way she used to be
And I'll be proud of her just like I was before
She never was the kind to like those crowded bars
And Ramona won't be seen there anymore...

 

[fox69]

"My Rough And Rowdy Ways"

"My Rough And Rowdy Ways"


For years and years I've rambled
I drank my wine and gambled
But one day I thought I would settle down

I have met a perfect lady
She said she'd be my baby
We built a cottage in the old hometown

But somehow I can't give up
My good old rambling ways
Lord, the railroad trains are calling me away

I may be rough, I may be wild
I may be tough and that's just my style
I can't give up my good old rough and rowdy ways

But somehow I can't give up
My good old rambling ways
Lord, the railroad trains are calling me away

I may be rough, I may be wild
I may be tough and that's just my style
I can't give up my good old rough and rowdy ways
[?] blues boy

 

[fox69]

"My Woman Keeps Lovin' Her Man"

"My Woman Keeps Lovin' Her Man"


My woman still loves me in spite of my way
For reason I don't understand
I guess some day she knows I'll come home to stay
That's why my woman keeps loving her man.

Someday she knows I'll be feeble and old
And unable to leave her again
She's happy just knowing that someday I'll change
That's why my woman keeps loving her man.

My woman is guilty of loving too much
A man who's only a man
And the mem'ry she clings to gives her something to touch
That's why my woman keeps loving her man.

Someday she knows I'll be feeble and old
And unable to leave her again
And someday she knows I'll come home to stay
That's why my woman keeps loving her man.

That's why my woman keeps loving her man...

 

[fox69]

"Narration #1"

"Narration #1"


When Jimmie Rodgers first sang California Blues he'd never been to the
golden state. He wrote and recorded the song in October 1928
He always dreamed of touring California but tuberculosis kept him from
making such a tour. Most of Jimmie's in person performances were in the
area from Texas east and it was in this area that he knew the railroads and
the railroaders and the bums that road the rods
Jimmie had a special feeling for the hobo
And he was always good for a touch by one of the knights of the road
He knew their problems and he knew them well
For Jimmie had hoboed many of the main lines himself.

 

[fox69]

"Narration #2"

"Narration #2"


Jimmie Rodgers earned the title of America's blue yodler
By composing and performing a series of 12 blue yodles
Jimmie by no means invented the yodle
But provided the yodle a unique interpretation by combining it with the blues
Jimmie made the yodle work for him
His yodle could display pain loneliness or even a happy frame of mind
Somebody said that Jimmie often inserted the yodle because he ran out of
lyric but I prefer to think that Jimmie Rodger's yodle more often
Than not displayed his real feelings better than any lyric could have...

 

[fox69]

"Narration #3"

"Narration #3"


Jimmie Rodgers had a great affection for the railroads and the men who
ran them and during the years he worked on the roads He spent most of
the time with the New Orleans and Northeastern lines which ran between
his home town of Meridian Mississippi and New Orleans.
And Jimmie became able to talk in the language of the railroaders
Like such expressions as hog-head and hot-box quil ball in the jack skinner
always filled his conversation and he wrote songs about these men and
their language.
The mule skinner was usually a man with a mule who hired himself
And his mule out by the day to do whatever had to be done
He might drag ties and rails or he might just move freshly cut timber from
the right of way the mule skinner was the subject of one of Jimmie
Rodgers's most popular blue yodles...

 

[fox69]

"Narration #4"

"Narration #4"


The hobo is a reocurring subject in the Jimmie Rodgers songs
Hoboing was an accepted form of travel for the migrant worker
Or for the unemployed who simply wanted a change of weather
And during the period of Jimmie's greatest popularity
You could set your watch by the highbawl of any train
Hoboing was an inexpensive almost sure way of getting from one place to
another and during the peak of the depression it was not unusual to see
Oh half a hundred bo's jump from a train just as it came into the outskirts
of a city. They'd jump off a soon as they could so as to ditch the trainbulls
of the oncoming yard. But many quite respectable men find it convenient to
hop trains also and many of them died identified only as a railroad bum
And I would imagine that hobo Bill was one of them...

 

[fox69]

"Narration #5"

"Narration #5"


Jimmie Rodgers knew when the time was near
But he still had a lotta songs he wanted to record
So he made arrangements to go from his home in Texas to Galveston and
then on farther by boat. And he left the boat someplace on the east coast
and continued on to New York by train. But by the time he arrived in New
York City he was so weakend by tuberculosis. It was necessary for him to
have a cot in the recording studio so that he might rest in between songs.
Amazingly his voice tho weak never broke while recording his last twelve
numbers Jimmie Rodgers used his last bit of strength for recording
He died in a hotel in New York City on the night of May 26, 1933
His railroad buddies paid Jimmie Rodgers his last homage
The engineer of the train upon which his body was placed pulled his quill
down to a sad low moan and this sound was maintained all the way to
Mississippi. His fans gathered at small whistle stops all along the route all
the way to Meridian. Jimmie Rodgers rests today in Meridian Mississippi
In the shadow of the great locomotive he loved and sang of so well...
The blue yodler has been gone almost 40 years
But he left us one of the greatest legacies in country music

 

[fox69]

"Natural High"

"Natural High"


You stayed with me thru thick and thin
You watched me lose, you watched me win
You picked me up off of the ground
You never one time let me down
And you put me on a natural high
And I can fly, I can fly

I was drowning in a sea of make-believe
As helpless as a falling leave
You gave your hand to me that day
And you did it, 'cause you're made that way
And you put me on a natural high
And I can fly, I can fly

You always seem to let your feelings show
You love me and you let me know
Darling just remember these three words
I love you, I love you, I love you
And you put me on a natural high
And I can fly, I can fly
And you put me on a natural high
And I can fly, I can fly