Lyr Req: Streets of Bakersfield (from Buck Owens)

Subject: the streets of bakersfield
From: doug
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 11:19 AM

help? also, still-don't tell mamma i was drinking thanks doug

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the streets of bakersfield
From: Wolfgang
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 04:10 AM

here

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the streets of bakersfield
From: doug
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 10:42 AM

thanks wolfgang perfect doug

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the streets of bakersfield
From: Yokum
Date: 27 Nov 99 - 04:16 PM

Dwight is playing in Bakersfield for new year's eve at the Buck Owen's theatre - price is $500.00. Reservations still available.

Subject: ADD: Streets of Bakersfield (Homer Joy)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 04:47 AM

This was the last big hit for Buck Owens, who lived in the Bakersfield suburb of Oildale most of his life.

STREETS OF BAKERSFIELD
(Homer Joy)

I came here looking for something
I couldn't find anywhere else
Hey, I'm not trying to be nobody
I just want a chance to be myself

I've spent a thousand miles of thumbin'
Yes I've worn blisters on my heels
Trying to find me something better
Here on the streets of Bakersfield

Hey you don't know me but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

I spent sometime in San Francisco
I spent a night there in the can
They threw this drunk man in my jail cell
I took fifteen dollars from that man

Left him my watch and my old house key
Don't want folks thinkin' that I'd steal
Then I thanked him as I was leaving
And I headed out for Bakersfield

Hey you don't know me but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Hey you don't know me but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
How many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/

Subject: ADD: Streets of Bakersfield (Homer Joy)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 05:09 AM

The Buck Owens recording is quite different from the lyrics I posted above from one of "those" sites. Here's what I hear:

STREETS OF BAKERSFIELD
(Homer Joy - as recorded by Buck Owens)

I came here looking for something
I couldn't find anywhere else,
But I don't want to be nobody
Just want a chance to be myself.

I've done a thousand miles of thumbin',
Yes, I've worn blisters on my heels,
Trying to find me something better
On the streets of Bakersfield.

You don't know me, but you don't like me;
You say you care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

[instrumental break]

Spent some time in San Francisco,
Spent a night there in the can.
They threw this drunk man in my jail cell,
I took fifteen dollars from that man.

I left him my watch and my old house key,
I don't like folks thinkin' that I'd steal;
Then I thanked him as he was sleeping,
And I headed out for Bakersfield.

You don't know me but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
How many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

You don't know me, but you don't like me;
You say you care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

---

Having walked the streets of Bakersfield myself many times, and having survived a three-day dust storm there, I think I've accomplished something. I quit work in 1999, but I still stay overnight in Bakersfield about once a year. Last time, I was about overcome by the oil fumes. But once upon a time, I did it. I lived in Fresno for four years, and I worked a week a month in Bakersfield. And I kept working Fresno and Bakersfield occasionally for twenty years after that.

-Joe-

Subject: Streets of Bakersfield
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 05:59 AM

I've been fascinated with California since a long time before I moved here from Wisconsin in 1971. My grandfather was here for a couple of years in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and he brought back amazing photographs of vast fields of wildflowers. Then my dad's employer, Walker Manufacturing Company in Wisconsin, was purchased by the Kern County Land Company of Bakersfield, and I developed a vague concept of the romance of the oilfields. The company was later acquired by Tenneco of Tennessee, but Bakersfield had become a Place of Interest to me. I was transferred from Los Angeles to Fresno in 1976, and my Fresno job required me to work 108 miles south in Bakersfield one week a month. Bakersfield had already captured my imagination as a kid, so I thought it was wonderful to go to Bakersfield so often.
Buck Owens was a big part of what fascinated me about Bakersfield. He was born in Texas in 1929 and moved to Bakersfield when he was 21 years old - and he stayed in that godforsaken town until he died in 2006. His recording studio across the Kern River in Oildale, was like a shrine. I've spent a lot of time in that godforsaken town since 1976, and there's something about it that still fascinates me. I can't explain why - it's dusty, even when there aren't dust storms; and it smells horribly of oil fumes and makes my eyes burn - but I still enjoy every visit I've made to Bakersfield over the last forty years.

I don't understand why, but I love Bakersfield.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Streets of Bakersfield (from Buck Owens)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 11:29 AM

Hi, Joe. Reading this made me want to know who Buck Owens is.

Here's a video of him from 1966.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOpgL4mqEis

As for your baffling affection for Bakersfield, somebody wrote a lovely song about that kind of thing. It's called 'To Each His Own.'