Gentle On My Mind

Glen Campbell

Written by John Hartford

Key of C · Chords: I V ii

Verse 1

C
It's knowing that your door is always open
                         Dm
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
              G7                  C
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch

Verse 2

And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
                                              Dm
And the ink stains that have dried if on some line
That keeps you in the back-roads
                                               G7           C
By the rivers of my memory that keeps you ever gentle on my mind

Verse 3

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
                                      Dm
Planted on the columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
             G7                      C
Because they thought we fit together walking

Verse 4

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing
                                                       Dm
Or forgiving when I walk along some railroad track and find
That you are moving on the back-roads by the rivers of my memory
                          G7           C
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Verse 5

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
                                        Dm
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman crying to her mother
          G7               C
Cause she turned and I was gone

Verse 6

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
But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back-roads
                      G7           C
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

Verse 7

I dip my cup of soup back from the gurgling
                                Dm
Crackling caldron in some train yard
My beard a roughning coal pile and
            G7                   C
A dirty hat pulled low across my face

Verse 8

Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
                                      Dm
I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the back-roads
                                             G7           C
By the rivers of my memory ever smiling ever gentle on my mind