Favorite Lines

Subject: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 May 06 - 05:01 PM

I just finished listening to one of my favorite songs, The Cafe On The Corner by Sawyer Brown. It's about an out of work Farmer who takes a job bussing tables at the Cafe, and is feeling just a little "out of place."

The lines are:

"And the meek shall inherit the earth
And the bank shall reposess it
And this job don't pay half what it's worth
But it's a thankful man that gets it."

The whole song is very strong, but those lines in particular really get me..

Got lines?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bill D
Date: 11 May 06 - 05:31 PM

similarly:

from "Broken Down Squatter"

"When the country was cursed with the drought at its worst,
And the cattle were dying in scores,
I kept up me pluck, and trusted to luck,
Thinking justice might temper the laws.
But the farce had been played, and government aid
Ain't extended to squatters, old son.
When me money was spent, they just doubled the rent,
And resumed the best part of the run."

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 May 06 - 07:11 PM

The whole song, but particularly this line from George Papavgeris' "Empty Handed":

My savings went to buy this land, but all its good for is to bury me

Later in this wonderful song:

I wonder what would happen if I just kept right on walking, till I disappeared..

Great stuff, El Grecko!!

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,old git
Date: 12 May 06 - 06:40 PM

From Calum Sands' "The man in the cap"

The priest was sprinkling prayers and holy water in the rain

and from "Ranzo"

I said to her "Me darling and how are you this morning?"
She said "None the better for the seeing of you."

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST
Date: 12 May 06 - 07:23 PM

My oldest nephew asked me a few years back what was my fav song. I told him I couldn't possibly choose only one of the who knows how many songs I've known & sung from most genres imaginable, but that I could tell him one of my alltime favorite lyric portions:

"Radiant beams from thy holy face;
   with the dawn of redeeming grace . . ."

       from the English version--Silent Night

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 12 May 06 - 07:35 PM

Ry Cooder's "Across the Borderline" touches a deep place in me. It works on many levels: spiritual, earthly, cosmic, localized, life, death, hope, despair. There is one verse in Spanish. Just gorgeous.

The chorus:

When you reach the broken promised land
And every dream slips through your hands
Then you'll know that it's too late to change your mind
'Cause you've paid the price to come so far
Just to wind up where you are
And you're still just across the borderline.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Peace
Date: 12 May 06 - 07:48 PM

The whole song of which this is the last stanza. As Elmer said, it works (on me, anyway) on many levels.

They say that I'm feeble with age, Maggie,
My steps are less sprightly than then,
My face is a well-written page, Maggie,
And time alone was the pen.
They say we are agèd and grey, Maggie,
As sprays by the white breakers flung,
But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST
Date: 12 May 06 - 07:57 PM

"It's a sign I'm getting on in years,
When nothing new seems welcome to these eyes and ears."

From John Gorka's "Houses In the Fields" -- and really, like Peace, I think it's the whole darned song, or at least the last couplet in every verse, that does it for me, not just a couple of lines. I don't think the song has been posted elsewhere in the forum, so I'll give it to you here:

HOUSES IN THE FIELDS
Written by John Gorka (1991)

They're growing houses in the fields between the towns,
And the Starlight Drive-In movie's closing down,
The road is gone to the way it was before,
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore.

Two more farms were broken by the drought,
First the Wagners now the Fullers pulling out,
Developers paid better than the corn,
But this was not the place where they were born.

CHORUS:

There's houses in the fields, no prayers for steady rain this year,
Houses in the fields, there's houses in the fields,
And the last few farms are growing out of here.

First he wouldn't sell and then he would,
Now there'll be children playing where the silos stood,
The word came from the marrow of his bones,
It was the last sure way to pay off all the loans.

The new streets will be named for kings and queens,
And a ransom will be paid for every castle's dream,
The model sign is crested with a lion,
And the farmers they will have enough to die on.

(CHORUS)

Oh, I guess no one should be afraid of change,
But tell me why is there a fence for every open range?
It's a sign I'm getting on in years,
When nothing new seems welcome to these eyes and ears.

(CHORUS)

They're growing houses in the fields between the towns,
And the Starlight Drive-In movie is all closed down,
The road is gone to the way it was before,
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore,
No, the spaces won't be spaces anymore.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 May 06 - 08:00 PM

There's a hound dog running all alone through the piney woods
The howlin' tears the soul out of me
There's a jay bird calling up a funeral dirge
In ragtime harmony.
Barb'ry Allen rolled over in her grave all morning
There were roses growing out of her head
Hey, God's gonna burn down Nashville tonight
Jimmy Martin's dead
Ah, the great Jimmy Martin's gone dead

Tom Russell, "The Death of Jimmy Martin>

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Alba
Date: 12 May 06 - 08:21 PM

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can't see what's round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage
Pacing the cage

Bruce Cockburn: Pacing the Cage

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: kendall
Date: 12 May 06 - 08:26 PM

I have so many favorite lines so I'll just mention a song that I just heard recently for the first time.
It's by Ian Campbell, and titled "Sun is burning in the sky."

Now the sun has come to earth
shrouded in a mushroom cloud of death
Death comes in a blinding flash of hellish heat and leaves a smear of ash,
And the sun has come to earth
Now the sun has disappeared
All is darkness, anger pain and fear

TWISTED SIGHTLESS WRECKS OF MEN GO GROPING ON THEIR KNEES AND CRY IN PAIN
And the sun has disappeared....

That's one of the most powerful lines I have ever heard.

War really is the ultimate failure.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 May 06 - 08:48 PM

"The best kind of love can take away the pain
And the best kind of answer has no sound."......Peter Himmelman

Himmelman did the music for "Judging Amy" and this song was an original written for a particular show. A really GREAT line.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Effsee
Date: 12 May 06 - 09:17 PM

"And for two thousand years,
He's brought nothing but tears,
and the cross that they plant on the graves"
Harvey Andrews.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 12 May 06 - 09:35 PM

And a Bob Franke song about fatherhood: "It's not the thing I do best, but it's the best thing I do." Every parent can recognize the wisdom in that line.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Alba
Date: 12 May 06 - 09:56 PM

This verse melts my Heart as it makes me think of my Grandfather for some reason. Strange what Imagery a Song bring to our minds:)

At the crossroads fair I'll be surely there
And I'll dress in my Sunday clothes
And I'll try sheep's eyes, and deludhering lies
On the heart of the nut-brown Rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
Though with rust my plow turns brown,
Till a smiling bride by my own fireside
Sits the Star of the County Down.

By the way it worked For William Doyle, my Grandfather. He married his nut brown Rose:)

Lovely Thread Jerry, as usual. Thank You
J

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Peace
Date: 12 May 06 - 10:10 PM

I guess I should stop by Mr. Johnson`s hardware store
His only son was my friend Joe
But he joined the army back in 1964
How could we know he would never come back, twenty years ago.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 May 06 - 01:44 AM

Great line from the song ' A Pub With No Beer '

" There's a far away look on the face of the bum '

and a line from Richard Thompsons ' Beeswing '

" White Horse in her hip pocket, and a wolfhound at her feet. "

eric

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 May 06 - 01:46 AM

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but my favourite lines (at the moment, anyway) come from a song by Lonestar - What about now?

The road rolls out like a welcome mat,
I don't know where it goes, but it beats where we're at,
We always said 'some day some how,
We're gonna get away, gonna blow this town;

What about now, how about tonight?


Just sums up everything I feel about all the trips I've planned and never been on... just getting into a car or a plane and being somewhere else, because anywhere is better than where we are now.

LTS

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 13 May 06 - 02:34 AM

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.


...and all the rest of "Love Minus Zero No Limit," by Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Pauline L
Date: 13 May 06 - 04:48 AM

Two of my favorite lines come from the same song:

We never did do much talkin' anyway
----------------
I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul

A really powerful song is American Pie. All the lyrics are good, but especially the last verse:

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music woudn't play

And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died

That just rips me up every time I hear or play it.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: clairerise
Date: 13 May 06 - 08:25 AM

Why is the bedroom so cold?
You've turned away on your side.
Is my timing that flawed?
Our respect runs so dry.
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through our lives.

But love, love will tear us apart again.
Love, love will tear us apart again.

You cry out in your sleep,
All my failings exposed.
And there's a taste in my mouth,
As desperation takes hold.
Just that something so good
Just can't function no more.


I know it is not the norm on here, but i just love these lyrics.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 May 06 - 08:30 AM

Norm? There ain't no Norm on here? :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: kendall
Date: 13 May 06 - 08:30 AM

..for Willy McBride it all happened again, and again, and again, and again and again..

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:08 PM

i love that line...do you know what the name of the song actually is? i can't find it based on the lyrics alone. thanks =)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Mikeof Northumbria(off base)
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:32 PM

"And he not busy being born is busy dying"

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Alba
Date: 19 May 06 - 09:09 PM

Hi Guest 5:08pm

If you meant Kendall's Favorite Line :....for Willy McBride it all happened again, and again, and again, and again and again..

The line is from the Song "No Man's Land" by Eric Bogle

Here is the Chorus and the verse containing the Line itself.


Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down ?
and did the band play the last post and chorus ?
And did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916, to that loyal heart are you forever 19
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined there forever behind a glass pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and
stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame

Last verse:
And I can't help but wonder young Willie McBride
Do all who lie here with you know why they died
Did you really believe it when they told you the cause
Did you honestly think that one war would end wars
Well your suffering, your sorrow, your glory, your shame
Your killing, your dying, it was all done in vain..........
'Cos young Willie McBride it all happened again, and again, and again, and again and again.

Great Line and a Great Song imo.

Jude
Song title corrected per Alba's request.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 May 06 - 09:37 PM

From Rosalie Sorrels' "Go With Me":

Let me walk into your smile,
Rest there in your eyes awhile,
Climb the mountains of your heart,
Walk your mind from dawn till dark.

Always reminds me of the night I met my wife of forty-nine years ago, and we sat in the kitchen, walking one another's minds,

Sandy

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 May 06 - 09:47 PM

Sorry for the extraneous "of" in the last line of the above.

I also like the last two lines on the chorus of Gordon Bok's "Turning Toward the Morning":

"If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time:
The world is always turning toward the morning."

We have sung this at many funerals -- not for the departed, but for the grieving ones who have been left to carry on.

A favorite quatrain from tradition ("Dear Companion"):

Last night you were sweetly sleeping,
Dreaming in your sweet repose,
Whilst I, a poor boy broken-hearted,
Listened to the wind that blows.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 06 - 10:29 PM

No, Alba,
"the line is from the Song "The Greenfields of France" by Eric Bogle"
That may be what some groups call it but Bogle called it "No man's land."
And some people call it "Willie McBride" but they're wrong too.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Alba
Date: 19 May 06 - 10:46 PM

Thank you for putting me in my place Robyn.
Alba

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 20 May 06 - 02:38 AM

If I had a pen from Pennsylvania,
if I had paper of the purest white,
if I had ink of the rosy morning
a true love note unto you I'd write.

(When First I Went to Caledonia)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Stewie
Date: 20 May 06 - 04:27 AM

Adoptee to birth mother:

On the day when I was new
You held me once
No one held you
I think of you as a Mourning Dove
That only flew on wings of love
[From Steven Sellors' 'Mourning Dove']

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 May 06 - 05:47 AM

so many great lines

the sky admits defeat, the sea will kiss your feet
I could drown in those blue eyes
(from Don Partridges hit Blue Eyes - written I believe by Richard kerr)

I could see she wasn't my cup of tea,
and I wasn't her glass of wine
(from I could not take my eyes off her by Dave Paskett)

Woman is the sweetest fruit god ever put on the vine
and I no more have just one kinda woman than I'd drink only one kind of wine
(from Berkley Woman by Bryan Bowers)

all of Late in the Evening by Paul Simon

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Teribus
Date: 20 May 06 - 07:39 AM

From Eric Bogle's "Safe in the Harbour":

"Ah to throw off the shackles and fly with the seabirds
To where green waves tumble, before driving sea winds.
Or to lie on the decking on a warm summers evening
And watch the red sun fall burning beneath the earth's rim"

Brings back lots of memories of passages long gone. My interest in "watching the red sun" falling burning beneath the earth's rim in those days was to check the ship's gyro. You took a bearing of the setting sun with the sun one half it's size above the horizon, funny thing was, whoever took that sight always stayed to see the sun fully down.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 May 06 - 01:21 PM

from John Prine's "Paradise" (1971):

Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes, And we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles Was all we would kill.

These are some of the most vividly descriptive words I know. I was driving through western Kentucky a couple years ago, and I just had to hike a trail I found near the Green River. It was in Mammoth Cave National Park, high above the river in a lush, overgrown area that has sinkholes all around. Yes, it DID smell like snakes there and I was halfway scared out of my wits to walk alone, but it was beautiful.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From:
Date: 20 May 06 - 03:06 PM

This is from a Vermont rock band I know, but just love this verse, from "Shopping List" by 8084

"I'm having lunch today, with the harbingers of doom.
I'm meeting them at noon
I have to do it soon
'cause they've been occupying all the empty corners of my room"



Not sure why, but it just hits me in the right places. :-)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 May 06 - 10:45 AM

"That's All Right" recorded by Helen Schneyer --

"I went down in the valley to pray,
My soul got happy and it stayed all day.
My soul's got a seat up in the Kingdom
And that's all right."

I love it ! -- "My soul got happy and it stayed all day".

Linn

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: number 6
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:11 AM

There're many songs and many lines, but this is comes to mind this morning as I post to this thread:

We'll hoist a hand
Becalmed upon a troubled sea
"Make haste your funeral," cries the Valkyrie

We'll hoist a hand
Or drown amidst a stormy sea
"Here lies a coffin," cries the cemetery, it calls to me

And all for nothing quite in vain was hope forever tossed
No thoughts explained, no moments gained, no hope forever lost
One moment's space, one moment's final fall from grace
Burnt by fire, blind in sight, lost in ire

sIx

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:24 AM

"When they're sweeping up bits of the night that got broken , and washing the moon away" - A fragment from 'Turnaround' by Left Wing Politacal writer Robb Johnson , to prove that he can write love songs as well !!

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 06 - 04:16 PM

The light of passion in dreamy eyes, and a page of truth well read,
The glorious thrill in a heart grown cold of the spirit I thought was dead,
A song that goes to a comrade's heart, and a tear of pride let fall --
And my soul is strong! and the world to me is a grand world after all!

Garnet Rogers....."After all".   From a poem by Australian Henry Lawson......Always reminds me that maybe its not all in vain ...Ake

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 21 May 06 - 04:23 PM

Jerry Rasmussen, who initiated this thread, has crafted many memorable lines himself, but one that has always struck me as truly capturing the "idiom of the people" opens his song about Dixon, Illinois:

    "Used to be was all I knew was Dixon."

My wife, Caroline, sings Craig Johnson's gem "Goodbye to the Lowlands" which talks of the changes in one's old home town wrought by the bulldozers of progress. His second verse observes that developments are often named after the areas they've destroyed -- you know, that long line of condominiums called "Walnut Grove" that stands where the walnut trees once were, but are no more:

    They've landscaped the cornfields, the back roads are paved,
    And they've built lots of houses with false country names;
    Names of the farms and the fields that they've changed,
    But they can't hide the truth of what little remains.

Bob Coltman's "Weaver's Reverie" sets the stage in the first verse of his heartbreaking song of the factory girls of 19th century Lowell, Masscahusetts, thusly:

    Where the weaver stands to work, she can scarcely see the sky;
    The songs of the sparrow can't be heard.
    The golden sunlight out the dirty window shines;
    She turns to her weaving without a word.

and the chorus observes:

    Slap go the belts against the pulleys;
    Shuttles fly across the loom.
    There are hours to go, and they never go so slow
    As they go in the weaving room.

    Sandy

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 21 May 06 - 04:26 PM

From Spring Of '65: traditional

"Come all you newsy women, who scatter news about
Don't tell no tales upon us, we're bad enough without
Don't tell no tales upon us, or kick up any fuss
You've been guilty of the same thing, perhaps a whole lot worse.

I find it interesting how few lines from traditional music have been posted..

Jerry

or, how about: from Coal Man Blues, from Peg Leg Howell

Woke up this morning, 'bout five o'clock
Cooked me some eggs and a nice pork chop
Drank a cup of coffee, read a magazine
I had to run pretty fast to catch the five fifteen

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Tootler
Date: 21 May 06 - 04:31 PM

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophet are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

From "Sounds of Silence" by Paul Simon.

And, in a more light hearted vein;

The sheep's in the meadow,
The kye's in the corn,
Thou's ower lang in thy bed,
Bonny at morn.
The sheep's in the meadow,
The kye's in the corn,
Thou's ower lang in thy bed,
Bonny at morn.

Chorus
Canny at night,
Bonny at morn,
Thou's ower lang in thy bed,
Bonny at morn.

The bird's in the nest,
The trout's in the burn,
Thou hinders thy mother,
In many a turn.
The bird's in the nest,
The trout's in the burn,
Thou hinders thy mother,
In many a turn.
Canny at night

We're all laid idle,
Wi' keeping the bairn,
The lad winnot work,
The lass winnot lairn,
We're all laid idle,
Wi' keeping the bairn,
The lad winnot work,
The lass winnot lairn,
Canny at night

Traditional Northumbrian

Something I am sure any parent can relate to :-)

Geoff

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Mr Fox
Date: 21 May 06 - 06:33 PM

Is it him that you see when we make love together?
Is it him that you see now war fills the sky?
Was he there when you stood in your grandmother's wedding dress
As we made our own vows, you and I?
- Woods of Darney, Richard Thompson.

Men have stripped you to the skin
Now the wolves will strip you to the bone
- The Death of Young Andrew, Trad.

Early next morning his fiddle was found
Splinters and wires on the grey mossy ground
Some say it was love that had called him away
Others would rather not say
- Fiddler's Cross, Bob Pegg

Well, I heard the hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
- Blind Willie McTell, Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 21 May 06 - 06:33 PM

Alba, you were right enough about Green Fields of France. It was originally called No Man's Land, and Bogle would explain the reason why; ( double meaning; land between the trenches and the central point of the song that all those boys never got to be men). However when he started to make money out of the Clancy Brothers reworking of the song which they called Green Fields of France and he has since made it quite clear when introducing it on stage that he is hapy with the new name.

Back to favourite lines:
You come home late you come home early,
You come on big when you're feeling small.
You come home straight, you come home curly,
Sometimes you don't come home at all.
(John Prine)

You curl around me like a fern in the spring
(John Martyn)

Your eyes look from a different face
they've seeen that much, that soon
Your cheeks too cold too pale to shine
like an old and waning moon.
(Richard Thompson)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 May 06 - 06:47 PM

So many.

I always thought I'd see you again. Fire and Rain/ James Taylor

I felt my own music within me rise
like the wind in the Autumn trees. River/Bill Staines

And the moon came up, so quiet in the sky. Roseville Fair/ Bill Staines

Like the last leaf on the Autumn branch
Comes a time you must let go. Changin' of the Seasons/Kathy Martin fanning

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 21 May 06 - 06:59 PM

Maybe love is not as gentle as my memory
Maybe time and wishful half-remembered fantasy
are the greatest part

Cheryl Wheeler - "Arrow"


Flipped into the wind
Like the ashes of her cigarette

Comin' Down in the Rain - Buddy Mondlock

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 May 06 - 10:24 PM

from the labor song "Hard Times In The Mill":

Ain't it enough to break your heart,
You gotta work all day -- and at night, it's dark.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 21 May 06 - 10:29 PM

Hi, Art: I figured I could get some favorite lines from a traditional song from you.... :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 May 06 - 10:35 PM

from Woody Guthrie's "Ballad Of Tom Joad":

They buried grandpa Joad by the side of the road,
Buried grandma on the California side!

--------(These two spare lines by Woody take care of the entire migration trip from the Oklahoma dust bowl to the supposed land of milk and honey in California. Without this brilliant shortcut this already very long song would've had 5 or 6 more verses.)

Art