From Sea To Shining Sea

FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA

(Johnny Cash)

The beautiful spacious skies the amber waves of grain

To the majestic purple mountains above the fruited plain

God did shed his grace from sea to shining sea on you and me

From Sleepy Hollow mountain country to the swamps of Okefenokee

To Guthrie Oklahoma to Hibbing Minnesota

To Grants Pass Oregon to Stone Pipe Wells California

From Texas to Montana from California to Maine

In the sunny days the winter snow from Arizona sand

To Cherokee North Carolina to Tarpen Springs Florida

America it's time to be refreshed recalled to memory

God did shed his grace on Thee from sea to shining sea

The land is big the best is free sand and surf grass and tree from sea to shining sea

(God shed his grace on me)

And crown Thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea

**********

WHIRL AND THE SUCK

(Johnny Cash)

It took a mighty good man with salty hands

And a mighty long raft to keep the fore before the act

You take ten good men and guts and luck

And you might navigate the whirl and the suck

Well the Tennessee River changed its mind at Chattanooga she oughta unwind

She could a run right on the Georgia Sea but she cut right back through Tennessee

Well the settlers come by raft and boat bringin' everything that could stay a float

But like a loco horse that'll twist and buck

They hardly ever made it through the whirl and the suck

It took a mighty good man...

[ banjo ]

When General Washington was in his knicker bocks

The Cherokee Indians through the Chattanooga Rocks

And the Chickamagua tribe and the Nickajack

They kept the watch where the river cut back

And if a raft or a boat ever rode the bend

The Indians got 'em cause they had 'em hemmed in

It took a mighty good man...

**********

CALL DADDY FROM THE MINE

(Johnny Cash)

A little girl woke up deep in the dark and started cryin'

The mother brought a light and held her daughter tight

She thought it was so strange to hear a little girl of nine

Cry call daddy from the mine call daddy from the mine

[ guitar ]

Her mother wiped the tears and said see honey you're only dreaming

Your dad must work today he has to draw his pay

She left her then but still could hear her cry time after time

Call daddy from the mine call daddy from the mine

Then the countryside was shaken by a mighty rumble

And fear for miles around was the trembling of the ground

The little girl was fast asleep yet cried out one more time

Call daddy from the mine call daddy from the mine

[ guitar ]

Ten thousand tears and two weeks later deep in the smoking ground

A dying man was found had survived all those around

He'd quickly crawled to a fresh air pocket barely just in time

When he heard his own child whine call daddy from the mine

Call daddy from the mine call daddy from the mine

**********

FROZEN 400 POUND FAIR TO MIDDLIN' COTTON

(Johnny Cash)

I left the field one evening my fingers so cold and sore

From fair to middlin' cotton 300 pounds or more

Jim McCann was still pickin' straddle in the row

The sun began to sinkin' and the wind began to blow

He was bound to get 400 a draggin' a twelve foot sack

I hollered out Jim come weight it but I only saw his back

So I went on home to supper and I gathered around my kin

I was thinkin' of Jim out there pickin' with winter settin' in

[ guitar ]

Next morning the air was freezin' the snow was nine feet deep

I jerked on my long red handles and I left my kids asleep

I got myself a shovel and went to where I seen Jim go

And commenced to a diggin' for him at the other end of his row

I found his body frozen and I took him in to thaw

I dragged in his sack and I weighed it and I added Jim's marks that I saw

The total was over 400 so he'd picked more than he'd bet

Of fair to middlin' cotton but Jim ain't thawed out yet

**********

WALLS OF A PRISON

(Johnny Cash)

It's not always the land that's the hardest and bitterest

It's the man who has the hard bitter attitude

Toward his fellow man or toward the land

Such is the case that you will find in this following song

About a man's attitude toward his fellow man and toward this land

[ guitar ]

I walked in the big yard to feel the warm sunshine

A ninety-nine year man stepped over to me

He offered a smoke and he said as I rolled it

Tomorrow I'm going to break out and go free

They watch us by sunlight they watch us by spotlight

But I know a way for a man to go free

Down under my cell I'm diggin' a tunnel

The walls of a prison will never hold me

[ guitar ]

I told him that I'd have no part of his scheming

My time would be over one year from today

His eyes blazed with fire and he looked right through me

Bitter but broken again he did say

They watch us by sunlight...

[ guitar ]

Next morning at breakfast the old man was missing

Then we all heard the rifles high up on the wall

He'd gone through the tunnel just like he had promised

And they said he was crying when they saw him fall

They watch us by sunlight...

**********

MASTERPIECE

(Johnny Cash)

There was an old stone-cutter who lived in a cabin on the mountain side

And the old stone-cutter knew it won't be long before he died

And all around his cabin were statues the man had made

Statues that the buyers said were all of a mediocre grade

With his calloused hands he lit a lamp and laid down his head on his handmade table

And he softly whispered Lord I'm old and shaky and I'm hardly able

But give me strenght and wisdom and give me a week at least

And I'll climb up to the top of this mountain and chisel out a masterpiece

The very next morning he felt new strenght

And he took his brand new hammer and the sharpest chisel

He began to climb the mountain his old feet slipping in the freezing dizzle

When he finally reached the top he shouted to a world that didn't hear

I'll carve my masterpiece out of this marble boulder here

So the hammer beat the chisel and he hammered till an image grew

Then he stopped to look it over to appraise his work when he was through

It was a boy carrying a crippled boy and the old man said it isn't my masterpiece

I'll call it charity and then a masterpiece of mine will be

So the hammer beat the chisel til another immage in a marbel grew

Then the wind began to blowing and he sat and rested when he was through

It was the image of a mother holding her child

He said this is love as the world would know

But it isn't my masterpiece and he began again as it began to snow

The hammer beat the chisel as the snow fell harder and the wind grew and grew

He fell to his knees holding a stone and he threw down his hammer and his chisel too

He lay frozen face down in the snow but one hand was held for the world to see

Cut in the marble was his masterpice three neatly carved letters GOD

**********

YOU AND TENNESSEE

(Johnny Cash)

Like a sweet rippling mountain stream

Goes the sound of the banjo on Cripple Creek

Never beginning never ending just rippling on and on

So does the land just ripple on and on

As a heart gets soft on a woman so can the heart get soft on the land

And to fall in love with a woman as well as the land is to surely be in love

[ guitar ]

I stayed away too long I know and every day was slow to go

Every night I dreamed I was here it's been a mighty lonely year

Every mile I needed you I kinda hope that you needed me too

Everywhere I saw your face around every town I was in

This old familiar place welcomed me again

Back to where I belonged to be back to you and Tennessee

Back to you and Tennessee

[ guitar ]

Beside the Cumberland River where the grass is soft and sweet

We ran across the fields of cedar hiding from the noisy streets

And when the leaves fell from the cold the stars were silver the moon was gold

I said it's yours with love from me

I'm planting my roots in this ground and when they look for me I'll be found

With something that is part of me you and Tennessee

Back with you and Tennessee

**********

ANOTHER SONG TO SING

(Johnny Cash)

Do they ask you where I am or where I've been

Do they ever say where is the lonely friend

Is my name whispered in your bedside prayers

Do you feel a vacant spot beside you there

Well there's always one more path that I must walk

And there's people I should sit down with and talk

And somebody might appreciate the flowers I could bring

So there's always another song to sing

[ dobro ]

Do you tell them I was wilder than the wind

Do you remember that I needed lots of friends

And at other times I'd rather be alon

Where I could not be found when I was gone

Well there's always one more canyon to explore

To touch the things left by those gone before

At the top of the tiniest hill I can feel like I'm a king

And there's always another song to sing

**********

FLINT ARROWHEAD

(Johnny Cash)

While traveling this land from border to border and from sea to sea

There have a few occasions to leave the beaten path and to find the place

And quiet that's good for thought and just walking through a trackless forest

Or exploring ruins of the earliest settlers or walking along a creekbed

Hoping to find a relic such as a tomahawk an axe

Or even an arrowhead left by a race of long since vanished Indians

There's a great thrill and it's a wonderful feeling to find a flint arrowhead

[ guitar ]

Over fields of new turned sod and in communion with my God I walked alone

In a furrow bed I found an arrowhead chiseled from stone

I don't know how long ago some redman drew his bow on its last fight

Or did he drop it here afraid white men were near to attack at night

I do know this one thing beyond all questioning it was made to kill

And proof of a master trade is in this arrowhead he made fashioned with skill

That I inherited this ground is denied by this stone I've found but when and by who

Come join me in my tracks then let's stop and look back to the vale and through

In love and peace we'll see the shadows and the trees and voices too

But quietly slowly tread this home of the forgotten dead whose bones are dust

I'm proud that their craftsmen's skill survives the ages still left in my trust

**********

10.

CISCO CLIFTON'S FILLIN' STATION

(Johnny Cash)

Cisco Clifton had a fillin' station about a mile and a half from town

Most cars passed unless they were out of gas so Cisco was always around

Regular gas was all that it sold except tabacco matches and oil

Other than that he fixed lots of flats keepin' Cisco rough hands soiled

He'd wipe the gas and check the air in a hundred times a day

He patiently gave directions on how to get to the state highway

Usually he'd give 'em water or a tyre or two some air

And once a big black Cadillac spent seven dollars there

He'd give anybody anything they'd ask and lend anything he had

His tools are tyres bumperjacks or wire to the good ones or the bad

In wintertime there was a depot stove and a table for a checker game

And every mornin' at sunup the same checker players came

So Cisco Clifton's fillin' station was always in the red

Personal loans were personally gone but never a word was said

One mornin' at eight them checker players heard a big bulldozer roar like a freight

And Cisco said I hope my kids stay fed when they build that Interstate

He'd managed to pay for property where his little fillin' station sat

And friends still came for checker game so Cisco settled for that

He wouldn't say so but Cisco knew that the Interstate was too much to fight

But to keep his will and to pay his bills he did odd jobs at night

He still opened up at sunrise and the checker game went on

The cars flew past on hightest gas and the neighbors had sold out and gone

If a car ever did go by he was lost and if they stopped they were treated the same

So at Cisco Clifton's fillin' station there's a howdy and a checker game

**********

11.

SHRIMPIN' SAILIN'

(Johnny Cash)

Turn on the speak it's the first time I get to talk on the speak cause you know okay

Darn those smart alec crazy cajon boy come in to my nice clean kitchens

And get into my pantry get my blackberry jim jam that I'd pick blackberries

And make a jim jam in the winter time to take out on the shrimpin' boat

And bring in a foldin' wads of wonderous waddy for my little wienies

And they come in to my blackberry jim jam in the pantry and get them all over

The nice clean kitchen table cloth the smart alec cajon boy well play the music

[ harmonica ]

Well the Gulf it got a grassy bottom settin' where the rock is there

And that's where I've been goin' for the shrimpin' sailin'

Leapin' cross the grassy moss bringing in a briny bin

Makin' folds of wonderous waddy for the living that I'm lovin'

Where they creep and crawl and flip and flap and flob and dangle dobbin'

Sponge a fouler drag em holler more a course the ocean horse

[ harmonica ]

Well the Gulf it got a grassy bottom settin' where the rock is there

And that's where I've been goin' for the shrimpin' sailin'

Till it's time to haul 'em and come back in with the briny bin

Of soddy bodies dressed in dandy eatin' carmel candy

Makin' me and all by babies foldin' wads of wonderous waddy

For the livin' that I'm lovin' in between the shrimpin' sailin'

[ harmonica ]

Gulf it got a grassy bottom settin' where the rock is there

Leapin' cross the grassy moss bringing in a briny bin

Makin' folds of wonderous waddy for the living that I'm lovin'

Where they creep and crawl and flip and flap and flob and dangle dobbin'

Sponge a fouler drag em holler more a course the ocean horse

Till it's time to haul 'em come back in with the briny bin

Of soddy bodies dressed in dandy carmel candy eatin' chicken

Fingel lickin' dancin' rancin' mancin' tancin'

Makin' me and all by babies foldin' wads of wonderous waddy

**********

12.

FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA (FINALE)

(Johnny Cash)

Past Virginia down from Maine it's a rolling wide terrain

Three thousand miles of shore just like three thousand years before

Then the hills began to rise till they almost touch the skies

From the flat black delta land to the singing Kansas sands

Down from the desert heat I see keeping it ours forever free from sea to shining sea

(America America) God shed His grace on Thee

And crown Thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea

**********