How long's it been? Sheesh, two weeks. You'll all be beside yourselves with impatience waiting for this instalment. Sorry, people - but I do like to make sure that you've had enough time to absorb the last song fully, to appreciate it in every nuance of meaning and emotion, before hitting you with another.
And 'hitting you' is the apt phrase for today's song. Sung by the great Merle Haggard, it tells you that amongst the times a person will think of the parental home and the parental parents will be times of some moment. Or should that be: moments of some time? Anyway, 'Sing Me Back Home' by Merle Haggard:
The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doomDon't knock it before you've heard it: the pedal steel behind the last chorus, the closing trumpet refrain.
I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
'Let my guitar-playing friend do my request.'Chorus
(Let him...) Sing me back home with a song I used to hear
And make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing me back home before I dieI recall last Sunday morning a choir from off the streets
Came in to sing a few old gospel songs
And I heard him tell the singers, 'There's a song my mama sang.
Can I hear it once before you move along?'Repeat chorus
Sing me back home before I die
[The Momma 'n' Daddy Archive, containing all the details of the series, is here.]
