The Ballad Of Barbara

(album: Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town - 1987)

In a southern town where I was born
That's where I got my education
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods
And I wondered at creation.

I recall the sun in a sky of blue
And the smell of green things growing
And the seasons chang'd and I lived each day
Just the way the wind was blowing.

Then I heard of a cultured city life
Breath taking lofty steeples
And the day I called myself a man
I left my land and my people.

And I rambled north and I rambled east
And I tested and I tasted
And a girl or two, took me round and round
But they always left me wasted.

In a world that's all concrete and steel
With nothing green ever growing
Where the buildings hide the rising sun
And they blocked the free winds from blowin.

Where you sleep all day and you wake all night
To a world of drink and laughter
I met that girl that I was sure would be
The one that I was after.

In a soft blue gown and formal tux
Beneath that lofty steeple
He said, "Do you Barbara, take this man,
Will you be one of his people?"

And she said, "I will." and she said, "I do."
And the world looked mighty pretty
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat
'Cause she loved the noisy city.

But the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky
And I longed for green things growing
And the thoughts of home and the people there
But she'd not agreed to going.

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me
With a look that wasn't pretty
And she turned into concrete and steel
And she said, "I'll take the city."

Now the cars go by on the interstate
And my pack is on my shoulder
But I'm going home, where I belong
Much wiser now and older.