Johnny Cash
Ballad of Barbara
[Verse 1]
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 growing
And I lived everyday and I lived anyway
Anyway the wind was blowing
Then I heard of a cultured city life
Breath taking lofty steeples
And the day I called myself a man
I left my land and my people

[Verse 2]
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 nothing green ever growing
Where the buildings hide the rising sun
And stopped the free winds from blowing
Where they sleep all day and you wake all night
To a world of drink and laughter
I met that girl that I was would be
The one that I was after
[Verse 3]
In a soft blue gown and 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
Because she loved the noisy city

[Verse 4]
Then the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky
And I longed for green things growing
And I talked of home and the people there
But she'd not agreed to going

[Verse 5]
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

[Verse 6]
Now the cars go by on the interstate
And my pack is on my shoulder
And I'm going home, where I belong
Much wiser now...
And older