Merle!

I'm home free, people, and listening to Merle Haggard. I haven't been back long and it's late, but I don't like to miss a day if I can help it, so this one's for Merle. If you know him, then you know. If you don't, it's a great big gaping hole in your culture and you should do something about it. Because you don't know the meaning of crying in your beer, and you don't know the meaning of music, and you don't know the meaning of meaning, until you've heard Merle Haggard singing...

Memories and drinks don't mix too well.
Jukebox records don't play those wedding bells.
Lookin' at the world through the bottom of a glass,
All I see is a man who's fading fast.

Tonight I need that woman again.
What I'd give for my baby to just walk in.
Sit down beside me and say: "It's alright.
"Take me home and make sweet love to me tonight."

But here I am again, mixin' misery and gin.
Sittin' with all my friends and talkin' to myself.
I look like I'm havin' a good time but any fool can tell,
That this Honky Tonk Heaven really makes ya' feel like hell.

And if I could blog that piano and pedal steel, you'd be yearning, you'd be weeping, you'd be forever in my debt. And Merle's. Then there's this - different, in your face, upbeat, no woman gonna get in the way of it:

Could be holding you tonight,
Could quit doing wrong, start doin' right.
You don't care about what I think.
I think I'll just stay here and drink.

Hey puttin' you down don't square no deal.
Least you know the way I feel.
Take all the money in the bank.
Think I'll just stay here and drink.

Listen close and you can hear,
That loud jukebox playin' in my ear.
Ain't no woman gonna change the way I think.
Think I'll just stay here and drink.

Instrumental Break.

Hurtin' me now don't mean a thing.
Since lovin' her, don't feel no pain.
My mind ain't nothin' but a total blank.
I think I'll just stay here and drink, yeah.

Instrumental break, you bet; that alone is worth your time, your heart and your ruboolas. And finally, for Elvis:

It's a long way from Memphis to that mansion in the sky,
But he kept his faith in Jesus all along,
It's a long way from Graceland across Jordan to the Promised Land,
But Jesus fin'ly came to lead him home.

Merle Haggard, ladies and gentlemen. You'd better believe it.