Here’s one of my favorite songs. It has several of my favorite couplets, including one that has special meaning for me today. Written by John Prine and performed best by Bonnie Raitt (follow this link to hear my favorite version of the song, performed by both Raitt and Prine at a benefit concert for Steve Goodman; pardon the advertising). Here’s a version of Raitt performing it as a solo.
It’s one of those songs that I never skip when it comes on; one that I always really listen to, and one that often induces chills. I hope you enjoy it.
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl I had me a cowboy
It wasn’t much to look at, was a free ramblin’ man
That was a long time and no matter how I tried
The years they just rolled by like a broken down dance
Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go
There’s flies in the kitchen, I can hear them there buzzin’
And I ain’t done nothing since i woke up today
How the hell can a person go on to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say?
Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go
The Local Paper 