G and I needed a record that I felt
E had a very, very strong
Em identity.
_ _ _
G _ _ _ .
_
D _ _ _ _
C _ _ _ .
Em _ _ _
G _ _ _ _ _ .
_
C _ _ _ _ _
Em _ .
I come
G from down in the valley.
_
D.
Where Mr.
Wynne, you're
C young.
_ _
Em.
They bring you up to
G do.
_
C Like your
G daddy done.
_
C Me and Mary, we met in high
G school.
When she was
D just
Em seventeen.
_ _
Am We'd ride a red mountain.
_ Down
C to where the
D fields were
C green _ _ _ _ .
G We'd
F#m go down to
D the river.
_
E And into the river
A we'd dive.
F#m Oh, down to
D the river
E we'd ride.
_ _
D _ _ .
F#m _ Then I got Mary
A pregnant.
_ A man, that was
D all she wrote.
And for
F#m my nineteenth
A birthday.
I got a union card and a wedding coat.
We
D went down to the courthouse.
A And the judge put it all
F#m to rest.
_ No wedding day smiles.
No walk down the aisle.
No flowers, no wedding
Em dress.
That night we
E had to go.
C _ _ .
Dm I started the narrative writing.
where I would inhabit
G a character.
D _
Em Down deep, down deep.
With a
C very specific narrative
D story.
I would sing in that voice, you know, the
C character.
and it wasn't necessarily
Em me.
it was partly me and partly
G other people.
So of course the
D river was, that was my touchstone.
Em for all of that writing that came later.
where you simply
G step into a character's shoes.
and
D try to get
C your listeners to walk in
G those shoes for a while _ .
The river was
C the key to the record, you know.
and that was
G a throwback, as I've said,
D to older
Em folk music.
and an older voice,
Am it was a very adult voice.
that was a political voice in the
G sense that it was.
dealing with the Carter recession.
C and its effects on, I guess, working people.
Em Got
E a
Em job working
G construction.
For
D the Johnstown
C Company.
_
Em _ _ Lately there ain't been
G much work.
On
C the county _
G economy.
_
D Of
C all those things that seem so important.
G _ They vanished
D right into
Em the air.
_ _
Am Act like I don't remember.
_
G Very act like she don't
C care.
_
Em I remember us
G driving in my brother's car.
D Her body tainted way down at
C the
Em reservoir.
_
E At night on those banks
G I'd lie awake.
Or
C close just to feel
G each breath she'd take.
How
C those memories come back to haunt
G me.
Yeah, they haunt
D me like
Em a curse.
There's
Am a dream alive that don't come true.
G Or is it something
C worse.
That sends
Em me down to
C the river _ .
D Though I know the river
G is dry.
D Sends
Em me down to the
D river _ tonight.
_ _ _
C _ _ .
F I think the
E I come from
G down in the valley, you know.
Then you're laying
D claim to _ _ _
E that
D character's
Em experience.
G# And you're trying to do right by
C it as a songwriter.
D And you're taking the risk of
Em singing in that voice.
_ But that's the writer's job.
Your job is to
D faithfully imagine _ the world.
And others' lives in
E a way that respects
Em them.
Sort
D of honors them and records them.
C _ .
In
D your own
Em way, _ somewhat
G faithfully _ .
_ _
D _ _ _ _
Em _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ _
C _ _ .
G _ _
D _ _ _ _
C _ _ .
_ _ _ _
Em _ _ _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .