Gentle On My Mind - Dean Martin
Intro + Riff
C C
Verse 1:
C
It's knowing that your door is always open
Dm
and your path is free to walk
Dm
that makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up
G7 C
and stashed behind your couch
C
And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
Dm
and the ink stains that have dried upon some line
Dm G7
That keeps you in the backroads by the rivers of my memory
C
that keeps you ever gentle on my mind
Verse 2:
C Dm
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns now that bind me
Dm G7 C
Or something that somebody said because they think we fit together walkin'.
C
It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgivin
Dm
when I walk along some railroad track and find
Dm
That you're moving on the backroads by the rivers of my memory
Dm G7 C
and for hours you're just gentle on my mind
Verse 3:
C Dm
Though the wheat fields & the clothes lines and junkyards & the highways come between us,
Dm G7 C
And some other woman's crying to her mother, 'cause she turned and I was gone.
C
I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face
Dm
and the summer sun might burn me 'till I'm blind
Dm
But not to where I cannot see you walkin on the backroads
Dm G7 Dm
by the rivers flowing gentle on my mind
Verse 4:
C Dm
I dip my cup of soup back from the gurglin' cracklin' cauldron in some trainyard;
Dm G7 C
My beard a roughning coal pile and a dirty hat pulled low across my face.
C Dm
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
Dm G7
That you're waving from the backroads by the rivers of my memory
C
ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind.
Outro:
G C