Sheet music for “The Telling Takes Me Home” available from Utah Phillips & The Long Memory.
“The Telling Takes Me Home” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Performer: Utah Phillips.
Lyrics: Utah Phillips.
Tune: Utah Phillips.
Let me sing to you all the old songs I know
Of wild, windy places locked in timeless snow
And wide, crimson deserts where the muddy rivers flow.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
Come along with me to some place I have been
Where the people all look back and still remember when
And the quicksilver legends like sunlight turn and bend.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
I could tell you all some lies that were just made up for fun
And the meanest, loudest brag could beat the fastest gun.
I’ll show you nameless graves that tell the way the West was won.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
We’ll travel down the wagon roads or along the iron rail
Past lines of rusty Cadillacs that mark the boom town trail
Where dreamers never win and doers never fail.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
I’ll sing of my amigos who come from down below
And whisper in their loving tongue the songs of Mexico.
They work their stolen Eden lost so long ago.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
I’ll sing about an emptiness the East has never known
Where the coyotes don’t pay taxes and a man can be alone
And you’d have to walk forever to find a telephone.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
Let me sing to you all the old songs I know
Of wild, windy places locked in timeless snow
And wide, crimson deserts where the muddy rivers flow.
It’s sad, but the telling takes me home.
Takes me home.