Ballad of Barbara - Live

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 changed and I lived each day

By 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 blowing

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

Because 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