Written by: John Hartford
Arranged By: Don Costa
Originally made famous by: Glen
Campbell
From the Album: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings
Label: Reprise Records
Recorded: November 12, 1968
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It's knowin' that your door is always
open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my
sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed behind
your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not
shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have
dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my
mind
It's not clingin' to the rocks
and ivy
Planted on their columns now
that bind me
Or something that somebody said
because
They thought we fit together
walkin'
It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad
track and find
That you're movin' on the back
roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle
on my mind
Though the wheat fields and the
clothes lines
And the junkyards and the
highways come between us
And some other woman's cryin' to
her mother
'cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me
till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on
my mind
I dip my cup of soup back from a
gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low
across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a
tin can
I pretend to hold you to my
breast and find
That you're waitin' from the
back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my
mind