Porter Wagoner Album

You'll meet many just like me upon life's busy streets
With shoulders stooped and heads bowed down and eyes that stare in defeat
Or souls that live within the past where sorrow plays all parts
Where a living death is all that's left for men with broken hearts
Now you have no right to be the judge to criticize and condemn
Just think but for the grace of God it'd be you instead of him
One careless step a thoughtless deed and then the misery starts
And to those who weep death comes cheap these men with broken hearts
Oh so humble you should be when they come passin' by
For it's written that the greatest men they never get too big to cry
Some lose faith in love and life when sorrow shoots her darts
And with hope all gone they walk alone these men with broken hearts
Now you've never walked in that man's shoes or saw things through his eyes
Or stood and watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies
Some were propers and some were kings and some were masters of the arts
But in their shame they're all the same these men with broken hearts
You know life sometimes can be so cruel that a heart will pray for death
God why must these living dead know pain with every breath
So help your neighbor along the road no matter where you start
For the God that made you made them too these men with broken hearts

I just came to smell the flowers here in someone's darkest hour
I don't even know the one they've laid to rest
But anyplace there's a crowd and anywhere they're cryin' loud
Just seems to be the place I love the best

Surrounded by the blues in a place that losers use
Where one smile cost at least a million tears
Look in for my past in the bottom of a glass
The only place I've looked for many years
Now the ground don't seem so very low when you're down about as far as you can go
And it's pretty hard to smile while the whole world laugh in your face
And with no will left to live the world moves fast while you lie still
Too weak to stand and just not enough man to join the race
So I just came to smell the flowers...

Like a bird that's lost its mate in flight I'm alone and oh so blue tonight
Like a piece of driftwood on the sea may you never be alone like me
I believed the lies you told to me when you whispered dear I worship Thee
Now here am I alone and blue all because I loved no one but you
[ steel ]
I gave up my friends I left my home when you promised to be mine alone
Now you're gone our love can never be may you never be alone like me
In the Bible God's own words do say for every wrong someday you'll pay
I pray the Lord to set me free may you never be alone like me

Skid Row Joe last night that's who I found in the dirty part of town
Lost forgotten with no place to go
Tormented with a bitter taste outcast by the human race
A mask of torture was the face of Skid Row Joe
He walked up to where I stood on the street
Said pardon me Mister now don't get me wrong I don't want your money
Though heaven knows I could use it
But you see this is my home and you see the other bar down the street
Well that's my home too
I noticed you starin' at me a while ago you recognized me didn't you
I said yeah Joe I know who you are
You was one time a real famous singing star one of my favorites
He said well I guess you heard they took my babies away from me
I said yeah Joe I read about it in the papers
Then he turned his head away and I saw the tears fall in the place
And he turned to me and he said you know Mister
This is the only place in the world that I'm not ashamed to show my face
But I'm gonna quit yes sir I'm gonna quit
And I'm gonna cut my hair and shave and get me a clean white shirt
Then I'm gonna walk up to her door
When she answers I'm gonna stand up real proud and tall
Then I'm gonna get on my knees
Then I'll say sweetheart if you'll take me back
I'll spend the rest of my life makin' up to you for what I've done
I'm so ashamed of myself and this I want you to know
Then I'm gonna take my two little babies and I'm gonna hold 'em so close to me
I ain't gonna never let 'em go
I guess I should've told him then that she'd already remarried again
But after hearin' what he'd said to me
Why there wasn't no way I could add to his misery
So I said good luck my best to you Skid Row Joe

Take me back try me one more time
Yes I know I've been untrue and I've hurt you through and through
But please have a mercy on this heart of mine take me back try me one more time
If my darling you could see just what your leavin's done to me
You'd know that love is still the tie that binds take me back try me one more time
( el.banjo - fiddle )
In my dreams I see your face it seems there's someone in my place
But does he knows that you were once just mine take me back try me one more time
If you'll just forgive me now I'll make it up to you somehow
I'll promise never again to be unkind take me back try me one more time

I've hurt all who loved me they don't understand that my life is out of control
All that really matters is this bottle in my hand how far down can I go
Tonight it's a bottom tomorrow what then anything that brings a happy glow
Once I loved somebody I wish I could again how far down can I go
I'd steal a newsboy's dime for a small glass of wine my hands get to trembling so
I've brought many tears to my mama's eyes how far down can I go
( steel )
I'd steal a newsboy's dime...

I'm a long way from home a long way from home Lord please watch over me
I just can't get a custom to the hunger no one seems to notice that I'm cold
This life's not making me no younger I wish I'd stayed at home like I was told
But I'm a long way from home
I've slept last night in a public mission
You can't imagine well you just can't imagine how I felt
The things that happened seemed like fiction
Someone even tried to steal my shoes while I slept
I'm a long way from home and so all alone and scared like I thought I never would be
I'm a long way from home everything is wrong Lord please watch over me

I'm just askin' you to listen not to understand these confessions of a broken man
I don't know where my story starts or I'd go back to them
All I know it's a sad sad tale so for it has no end
I know I drank too much though I didn't take thirst
Oh I'd have a beer or two and it just seemed to go from bad to worse
Then one day I noticed my money was goin' out faster than it was comin' in
And I got scared and I started gamblin' and I'm the kind that just never seems to win
I had a woman guess every man does and every man thinks his is the best mine was
Stuck by me through thick and thin till it just got too thin I guess
She walked in one day and said she had believed me
I could've sworn I saw big tear in her eye
I heard the other day that she got married again I hope he treats her better than I
Well if you get me idea that I'm some son of a bum you're catchin' on pretty fast
And if you wonder if I've turned into a wino
For these are all my fingerprints on this glass
I've been sittin' in this bar since they opened up this mornin'
And it's almost time to close tonight
I guess it's about time to go find me a gutter tuck myself in tonight
Where does a man go when he's already on the bottom
It's really not much choise he's got
Either picks hisself up and tries again or just lays back down to rot
No life starts out to be like mine pain is never planned
And yet here I sit with nothing in the world but these confessions of a broken man
I'm just askin' you to listen not to understand these confessions of a broken man

MY TEARS ARE OVERDUE
(Freddie Hart)
« © '64 Tree Publishing »

If you want to see somebody cry their heart out
For a love they lost and must live without
If you're not afraid my misery might revolve on you
Just hang around my tears are overdue
If you want to hear confessions of a broken man
Who once held a world of love right in his hands
If you wanna see a heartbreak right into the front of you
Just hang around my tears are overdue
Now there's not a way that I can say how much it really hurts
When a broken heart and guilty conscience starts to worse
I hope you won't forget the sight you've seen today
Just remember love I had then threw away
If you're not afraid my misery might revolve on you
Just hang around my tears are overdue
If you're not afraid my misery...

Now friend if you'll just listen to me you'll get some good hard earned advice
Now I don't aim to meddle in your business I'm just tryin' to save you an awful price
You see these teeth that I ain't got and these knots on my bald head
I'll guarantee you boys I didn't get them there a lyin' home in the bed
Now take the smart alec in any town of him folks want no part
Cause he acts like his head was only made to hold his ears apart
Now he might act like what I'm bout to say and my words would prob'ly make him sore
But I'm just tryin' to be helpful cause I've been down that road before
To bully folks and play mean tricks was once my pride and joy
Till one day I was toted home and mama didn't hardly know her little boy
My head was swelled up so doggone big I couldn't get it through my front door
Now I'm not just talkin' to hear myself I've been down that road before
A little fellow about my size got tired of being puched about
So he went to work and when he got thru he'd knocked every one of my teeth out
One time too many I'd rubbed him wrong and he evened up the score
Now that's what happens when you get too big for your britches
And I've been down that road before
Now when you get to thinkin' you're really smart there's somebody smarter than you
And no matter how much you boast and brag you can still learn a thing or two
Go get you some treatments just like I've had and you won't hanker for more
I've really learned the meanin' of livin' and lovin'
Cause I've been down that road before
Now the man that walks this rocky road usually gets just what he deserves
Cause he's just a helpless servant to a master that he serves
Now I've learned to slow my temper down and not to pick no scraps no more
Boys it's a lot easier on the head and eyes cause I've been down that road before

Travelin' down a lonely highway I knew not where the road would end
Not a penny in my pocket all alone without a friend
Met a lad while on my travel tryin' hard to play the game
Though his legs were very very crippled and he couldn't even speak his name
But he smiled in understanding though life to him had been so unkind
As I watched I bowed in sorrow oh Lord Thy burdens are greater than mine
I can speak my name aloud make my way among the crowd
Yes Thy burdens are greater than mine

In a little country village I met a lad and he was blind
As I helped him across the highway
I cried oh Lord Thy burdens are much greater than mine
I can see the light of day and I need not feel my way
Yes Thy burdens are greater than mine
Just by chance I passed a graveyard saw a young man kneeling there
In his hands he held some roses on his lips I saw a prayer
On the thomb these words were written' her soul is God's her mem'ry mine
As I watched I cried in sorrow oh Lord I see Thy burdens are greater than mine

(Going home going home tell all my friends that I'm going home)
If you should see me and I can't walk then if you should speak and I can't talk
Feel of me if I'm cold there's a shovel in the back to dig the hole
No I don't expect this last favour for nothing cause you're a busy man my friend
So look on the end of the handle you'll find attacked two tens
There's a phone number on the back of the shovel of a dear friend of days gone by
Call her and tell her to bring her sister I've already gave them two tens to cry
The Lord's prayer's engraved on a penny in the left pocket of my coat
I carry this with me for two reasons the last so I never was broke
Oh I've had a lot of beautiful dreams of things that might have been
So please buy some pretty flowers in my right pocket is my last two tens
I've made a little money in my time but perhaps more than a lot of men
But I spent it all havin' a ball with a few fairweather friends
But you know I brought nothin' with me to this old earth
And now that my journey ends
Me and this old world broke even since you have my last two tens
(Going home going home tell all my friends that I'm going home)