| C | % |

[Verse 1] 

It’s knowin’ that your [Em/B]door is always open

And your [C/G]path is free to walk

Dm C#aug Dm7/C

That makes me tend to keep my sleeping bag rolled up

And stashed behind your couch

And it’s knowin’ I’m not [Em/B]shackled

By forgotten words and [C/G]bonds

And the ink stains that have dried upon some line

Dm C#aug

That keeps you in the back roads

By the [Dm7/C]rivers of my memory

That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

[Verse 2] 

It’s not clingin’ to the [Em/B]rocks and ivy

Planted on their [C/G]columns now that bind me

Dm C#aug Dm7/C

Or something that somebody said because

They thought we fit together walkin’

It’s just knowing that the [Em/B]world

Will not be cursing or for[C/G]giving

When I walk along some railroad track and find

Dm C#aug

That you’re movin’ on the back roads

By the [Dm7/C]rivers of my memory

And for hours you’re just gentle on my mind

[Verse 3] 

Though the wheat fields and the [Em/B]clothes lines

And the junkyards and the [C/G]highways come between us

Dm C#aug Dm7/C

And some other woman’s cryin’ to her mother

‘Cause she turned and I was gone

I still might run in [Em/B]silence

Tears of joy might stain my [C/G]face

And the summer sun might burn me till I’m blind

Dm C#aug

But not to where I cannot see

You [Dm7/C]walkin’ on the back roads

By the rivers flowin’ gentle on my mind

[Verse 4] 

I dip my cup of [Em/B]soup back

From a gurglin’ cracklin’ [C/G]cauldron in some train yard

Dm C#aug

My beard a rustlin’ coal pile

And a [Dm7/C]dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands ’round a [Em/B]tin can

I pretend to hold you [C/G]to my breast and find

Dm C#aug

That you’re waitin’ from the back roads

By the [Dm7/C]rivers of my memory

Ever smilin’, ever gentle on my mind

| C | % |

(repeat and fade)