The award of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan created a mini-brouhaha as to whether the Nobel Prize for Literature should be awarded to somebody who merely wrote songs (and sang them), as opposed to somebody who wrote books. But I have no complaint. Songs are just poetry set to music.
I also have no objection to Bob Dylan winning the award. My only comment is that, when it comes to songs that speak to me, the ones that do it best are country. I understand many people see country music as “depressing songs about divorce and pain.” But the best of country is not just “three strings on an old guitar.” The best songs speak to life. And when it comes to that kind of country song, nobody does it better than Donna Fargo. But instead of me trying to tell you that, let her songs do it themselves. Here are two I especially like:
I was lying face down in a daze on a semi-sunny day at a Holiday Inn in Kirksville, Missouri
With the strap of my bathing suit undone so I wouldn’t get a mark on my back from the sun in Kirksville, Missouri
Nobody but me, a little breeze and some flies, an occasional passerby, the place was deserted
With a tired body and a tired mind, guess it was as good a place as any to be going nowhere.There was nothing on the Sunday matinee in my mind but some reruns I’d seen a hundred times, I guess it was a Sunday
‘Bout a lonely cowgirl riding lost in the world and the little wooden pony going nowhere and nobody to go with her
Some disconnected dreams, a lot of one-way streets, a memory or two or three she’d rather not remember
And the need to be unafraid of the dark, free from whatever it is that tries to keep a body lonely.Ah, and over and over and over again, she said someday you’re going to find it girl, ‘cause Jesus loves you and God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world
Ah, but the hills keep getting higher, though, and life’s such a lonely game, and for restless souls and empty hearts how come the questions and answers are all the same.Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, there was a fork in the road, I don’t guess you ever know which way you ought to go ‘til you get there
But the pretty bright lights and the big city sights put the shine on the kind of life she knew she’d have to find where you get there
She hitched a ride on a dream and she rode full steam, finally got to the top of the hill she was climbing
She turned around and round, she looked up and down, she said if that’s all there is, then the searching was better than the finding.And then the stage was bare and she was standing there looking at the bittersweet tapestry of life she was weaving
Though she didn’t understand everything in the plan, somehow she knew in her heart it works together from the start to the ending
And that the sun comes up and the sun goes down and the beat goes on and on, the Kirksville, Missouri’s
And the stagecoach finds another hill to climb, I guess it was as good a place as any to be going nowhere.Ah, but over and over and over again, she said someday you’re going to find it girl, ‘cause Jesus loves you and God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world
Ah but the hills do keep getting higher, don’t they, and life’s such a lonely game, and for restless souls and empty hearts how come the questions and answers are all the same.
Can't remember my first memory of you you were always there
And now I know I never knew you well
But I was just a kid and you were always there to pick me up everytime I fell.And you always warmed a blanket to wrap around my feet
When you tucked me into bed to say my prayers
And I'll bet I never thanked you among all the other things
That I took for granted ‘cause you were always thereYes you were always there so we never took the time
For you to tell me your dreams and me to tell you mine
And we never took the time to talk of love and happiness
And life and death and heartache and pain and loneliness.Why I don't even know if you were happy or if you could have been
Or if you could have one wish what would it be
Or what would you do differently if you could live again
And were you glad that you gave life to me.And I'd give anything to tell you that I’m glad you were born
But you'll never hear the words I learned to say
Cause before I got to know you died of loneliness
And they tell me I grew up and moved away.Yes you were always there so we never took the time
For you to tell me your dreams and me to tell you mine
There were so many things that could have been but now we'll never share
Cause kids don't know much and you were always there
No kids don't know much and you were always there.
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