John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness Album Lyrics

I ain't got nobody hangin' 'round my doorstep
Ain't got no loose change just a-hangin' 'round my jeans
If you see somebody, would you send em' over my way?
I could use some help here with a can of pork and beans

I once had a family but they up and left me
With nothing but an 8-track, another side of George Jones
I was in high cotton, just a-bangin' on my six-string
A-kickin' at the trash can, walkin' skin and bone

I can see your back porch if I close my eyes now
I can hear the train tracks through the laundry on the line
I'm thinking it's your business, but you don't got to answer
I'm knocking on your screen door in the summertime

Everybody's out there climbin' on the trees now
Swingin' in the breeze now, hangin' on the vine
I'm dreamin' 'bout a sailboat, I don't need a fur coat
Underneath the dashboard got some sweet potato wine

I can see your back porch if I close my eyes now
I can hear the train tracks through the laundry on the line
I'm thinking it's your business, but you don't got to answer
I'm knocking on your screen door in the summertime
I'm knocking on your screen door in the summertime

I have met my love today
I have met my love today
Doesn't really matter what we had to say
I have met my love today

I've been holding on for you
Dreams I've had have all come true
I've seen your picture and I knew you right away
I have met my love today

True love will always have its way
There ain't no doubt about it: true love is here to stay

Day-by-day our love will grow
Day-by-day our love will show
We'll go on forever and I can truly say
I have met my love today
I have met my love today

If you like your apples sweet
And your streets are not concrete
You'll be in your bed by nine every night
Take your hand-spanked, corn-fed gal
And your best friend's four-eyed pal
To a treat right down the street at [?]
[?] let your conscience be your guide
If you put your foot inside
You wish you left your well-enough alone
When you got hell to pay
Put the truth on layaway
And blame it on that ole' crazy bone

Crazy bone (crazy bone)
Crazy bone (crazy bone)
Well you wish you'd left your well-enough alone
When you got hell to pay
Put the truth on layaway
And blame it on the ole' crazy bone

Don't be stuck up in Alaska
When you should be in Nebraska
On a Thursday when it's Egg & Daughter Nite
When the farmers come to town
And they spread them eggs around
And they drop their daughters down at the roller rink
Well you're prob'ly standin' there
With your slicked-back, Brylcreem hair
Your Lucky's and your daddy's fine-tooth comb
If they knew what you were thinkin'
They'd run you out of Lincoln
Just blame it on that ole' crazy bone

Crazy bone (crazy bone)
Crazy bone (crazy bone)
Well you must have left your wisdom tooth at home
If they knew what you were thinkin'
They'd run you out of Lincoln
Blame it on the ole' crazy bone

When the grandkids all are grown
And they put you in a home
And eternity is approachin' fast
Yeah you're half out of your head
And you prob'ly pissed the bed
And you can't see a thing to save your ass
And far across the prairie (prairie)
In the local cemetery ('tery)
They already got your name carved out in stone
When all them nurses say
"Grandpa why you walk that way?"
Just blame it on that ole' crazy bone
Yeah blame it on that ole'

Crazy bone (crazy bone)
Crazy bone (crazy bone)
And everybody in that old folks' home
If they knew what you were thinkin'
They'd run you out of Lincoln
Just blame it on that ole' crazy bone
And everybody in that old folks' home
Yeah blame it on that ole' crazy bone

Summer's end's around the bend just flyin'
The swimmin' suits are on the line just dryin'
I'll meet you there for our conversation
I hope I didn't ruin your whole vacation

Well you never know how far from home you're feelin'
Until you've watched the shadows cross the ceilin'
Well I don't know, but I can see it snowin'
In your car the windows are wide open

Just come on home
Come on home
No you don't have to
Be alone
Just come on home

Valentines break hearts and minds at random
That ol' Easter egg ain't got a leg to stand on
Well I can see that you can't win for tryin'
And New Year's Eve is bound to leave you cryin'

Come on home
Come on home
No you don't have to
Be alone
Just come on home

The moon and stars hang out in bars just talkin'
I still love that picture of us walkin'
Just like that ol' house we thought was haunted
Summer's end came faster than we wanted

Come on home
Come on home
No you don't have to
Be alone
Come on home
Come on home
You don't have to
Be alone
Just come on home

The dark and distant drumming
The pounding of the hooves
The silence of everything that moves
Late at night you'll see them
Decked out in shiny jewels
The coming of the caravan of fools

Like the wings of a dove
The waiter's white glove
Seems to shimmer by the light of the pool
Some dull, blinding winner
When you can't stand to lose
You're running with the caravan of fools

The caravan of fools, caravan of fools
You're running with the caravan of fools

Love and devotion
Deep as any ocean
Don't play by anybody's rules
With your carousel of horses
And your unforeseen forces
You're running with the caravan of fools

Caravan of fools, caravan of fools
You're running with the caravan of fools

The lonesome friends of science say
"The world will end most any day"
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Well, long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog, my kids, and me

Poor ol' planet Pluto now
He never stood a chance no how
When he got uninvited to
The interplanetary dance
Once a mighty planet there
Now just an ordinary star
Hangin' out in Hollywood
In some ol' funky sushi bar

The lonesome friends of science say
"The world will end most any day"
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Well, long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my family

The Vulcan lives in Birmingham
Sometimes he just don't give a damn
His head is full of bumblebees
His pride hangs down below his knees
Venus left him long ago
For a guy named Mars from Idaho
The Vulcan sent a wedding gift
Three-legged stool and a wheelchair lift

The lonesome friends of science say
"This world will end most any day"
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Well, long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my family

Those bastards in their white lab coats
Who experiment with mountain goats
Should leave the universe alone
It's not their business, not their home
I go to sleep and it never rains
My dog predicts hurricanes
She can smell a storm a mile away
That's all the news we have today

The lonesome friends of science say
"The world will end most any day"
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Well, long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my family

Last night
Turned on the TV
Looked out the window
And then pulled down the shades
And I came to
The conclusion
My mind could not be made

She said "Well what're you thinkin'?"
"I'm just a-wonderin'
"Is it somethin' that I did?"
I said "It's nothin'
"Just somethin'
"I picked up as a kid"

I hear a [?] empty spaces
I see a big hole in the view
I feel an outline that traces
An imaginary path back to you
This ain't no ordinary blue

Last night
For a split sec
I was a train-wreck
I was a complicated guy
I hope we don't find
This's the last time
We ever say "Goodbye"

The orange gleam
Is risin'
On the horizon
Of the outskirts of my mind
I sat and listened
As it glistens
It says "Leave the past behind"

I hear a [?] empty spaces
I see a big hole in the view
I feel an outline that traces
An imaginary path back to you
This ain't no ordinary blue

Too cold to hold
Too deep to swim to
Too cold to hold
Too deep to swim to

Last night
Turned on the TV
Looked out the window
And then pulled down the shades

I woke up this morning to a garbage truck
Looks like this ol' horseshoe's done run out of luck
If I came home, would you let me in?
Fry me some pork chops and forgive my sin?

Surround me with your boundless love
Confound me with your boundless love
I was drowning in the sea, lost as I could be
When you found me with your boundless love

Sometimes my ol' heart is like a washing machine
It bounces around 'til my soul comes clean
And when I'm clean and hung out to dry
I'm gonna make you laugh until you cry

Surround me with your boundless love
Confound me with your boundless love
I was drowning in the sea, lost as I could be
When you found me with your boundless love

If by chance I should find myself at risk
A-falling from this jagged cliff
I look below, and I look above
I'm surrounded by your boundless love

Surround me with your boundless love
Confound me with your boundless love
I was drowning in the sea, lost as I could be
When you found me with your boundless love
You dumbfound me with your boundless love
You surround me with your boundless love

God only knows the price that you pay
For the ones you hurt along the way
If I should betray myself today
Then God only knows the price I pay

God only knows
God only knows

God only knows the way that I feel
Is only a part of the way that I feel
If I can't reveal that way that I feel
Then God only knows the way that I feel

God only knows
God only knows

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take

God only knows
God only knows
God only knows
God only knows

God only knows when I'm not true
To the things I say and the things I do
And if I can't be true to the things that I do
Then God only knows the way I feel

God only knows
God only knows
God only knows
God only knows

When I get to heaven, I'm gonna shake God's hand
Thank him for more blessings than one man can stand
Then I'm gonna get a guitar and start a rock-n-roll band
Check into a swell hotel; ain't the afterlife grand?

And then I'm gonna get a cocktail: vodka and ginger ale
Yeah, I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl
'Cause this old man is goin' to town

Then as God as my witness, I'm gettin' back into showbusiness
I'm gonna open up a nightclub called "The Tree of Forgiveness"
And forgive everybody ever done me any harm
Well, I might even invite a few choice critics, those syph'litic parasitics
Buy 'em a pint of [?] and smother 'em with my charm

'Cause then I'm gonna get a cocktail: vodka and ginger ale
Yeah I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl
Yeah this old man is goin' to town

Yeah when I get to heaven, I'm gonna take that wristwatch off my arm
What are you gonna do with time after you've bought the farm?
And them I'm gonna go find my mom and dad, and good old brother Doug
Well I bet him and cousin Jackie are still cuttin' up a rug
I wanna see all my mama's sisters, 'cause that's where all the love starts
I miss 'em all like crazy, bless their little hearts
And I always will remember these words my daddy said
He said, "Buddy, when you're dead, you're a dead pecker-head"
I hope to prove him wrong, that is, when I get to heaven

'Cause I'm gonna have a cocktail: vodka and ginger ale
Yeah I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl
Yeah this old man is goin' to town
Yeah this old man is goin' to town