A Picture From Life's Other Side

(album: Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs, Vol. 2 - 1964)

In the world's mighty gallery of pictures
There are scenes that are painted from life
Scenes of youth and of beauty
Scenes of hardship and strife

Scenes of wealth and of plenty
Old age and the blushing young bride
Hang on the wall but the saddest of all
Is a pictures from life's other side

A picture from life's other side
Someone has fell by the way
And a life has gone out with the tide
That might have been happy someday

Some poor mother at home
Is watching and a-waiting alone
Longing to hear from her loved one, so dear
That's a picture from life's other side

Now the first scene is one of two brothers
Their paths them both differently led
One lived in luxury and riches
And the other one begged for his bread

One night they met on the highway
"Your money or life, sir", one cried
And then with his knife took his own brother's life
That's a picture from life's other side

The next scene is that of a gambler
Who had lost all his money at play
An' he draws his dead mother's ring from his finger
That she wore long ago on her wedding day

It's his last earthly treasure but he stakes it
Then he bows his head that his shame he may hide
But, when they lifted his head they found he was dead
That's a picture from life's other side

A picture from life's other side
Someone has fell by the way
And a life has gone out with the tide
That might have been happy someday

Some poor mother at home
Is watching and a-waiting alone
Longing to hear from her loved one, so dear
That's a picture from life's other side

Now the last scene is down by the river
Of a heart broken mother and babe
In the harbor light glare see them shiver
Outcasts that no one will save

Once she was once a true woman
Somebody's darling and pride
God help her, she leaps for there's no one to weep
That's a picture from life's other side

A picture from life's other side
Someone has fell by the way
And a life has gone out with the tide
That might have been happy someday

Some poor mother at home
Is watching and a-waiting alone
Longing to hear from her loved one, so dear
That's a picture from life's other side