Here’s the song that Gene posted a link to, back on 08-Aug-2010. The tune is “Barbara Allen” but the story is much different.


BALLAD OF BARBARA
Words and music by Johnny Cash
As recorded by Johnny Cash on “The Last Gunfighter Ballad” (1977)

In a southern town where I was born,
That’s where I got my education.
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods
And I wondered at creation.

I recall the sun in a sky of blue
And the smell of green things growin’,
And I lived ev’ry day and I lived any way,
Any way the wind was blowin’.

But then I heard of a cultured city life,
Breathtaking lofty steeples,
And the day I called myself a man,
I left my land and my people.

And I rambled north and I rambled east,
And I tested and I tasted,
And a girl or two took me round and round,
But always left me wasted.

In a world that’s all concrete and steel,
With nothin’ green ever growin’,
Where the buildings hide the risin’ sun,
And stop the free wind blowin’,

Where they sleep all day and they wake all night
To a world of freak and laughter,
I met the girl that I thought would be
The one that I was after.

In a soft blue gown and a formal tux,
Beneath that lofty steeple,
He said: “Do you, Barbara, take this man?
Will you be one of his people?”

And she said: “I will,” and she said: “I do,”
And the world looked mighty pretty,
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat,
‘Cause she loved the noisy city.

Then the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky,
And I longed for green things growin’,
And I talked of home and my people there,
But she’d not agree to goin’.

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me
With a look that wasn’t very pretty,
And she turned into concrete and steel,
And she said: “I’ll take the city.”

Now the cars go by on the interstate,
And my pack is on my shoulder,
And I’m goin’ home where I belong,
Much wiser now and older.