Red Dirt Girl Lyrics
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin' on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin' every song the radio played
Waitin' for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.
He was fixin' up a '49 Indian
He told her ''Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin' there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin' somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.
She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
That's where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end.
At least not for Lillian
She was only twenty seven and she had five kids.
Coulda been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Names Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground
God, I love this song. One of my favorites ever - such beautiful music, and so sad. It makes me want to cry! I suppose it's about her friend Lillian, wanted nothing more to get out of a hick town in Alabama, but never did.
This is one of the most tragic songs I've ever heard. It's about the pain of people who live and hurt so much and never really have a chance, but whose lives are as important as anyone's in the world.
Apparently the genesis of this song came when she was driving by herself down to a recording gig in Nashville, and passed through a little hick town called Meridian Mississippi. The name had a rhythm that appealed to her, and she started to come up with rhymes, like Gideon, Lillian, etc. The soil in the area was mostly red clay. By the time she got to Nashville she'd pretty much written the entire song.
Regarding the stars falling on Alabama: on November 12, 1833, there was a Leonid meteor shower in Alabama (visible other places, too) and people thought judgement day was coming. This was immortalized in the 1934 Perkins/Parrish jazz standard, "Stars Fell on Alabama," which has been recorded by numerous artists. Even Alabama license plates bore the "Stars Fell On" slogan from 2002-2009.
I think that the significance of the hammer comes from "hammer songs," mostly southern spiritual work songs that slaves and the free working poor would sing to make their difficult toil more pleasant.
This is my favorite Emmylou Harris song and it makes me cry every single time I hear it.
Brilliant songwriting; she is amazing. She covers the story of millions who have to endure real life, while reaching to dreams seem so close [like Tom Petty's American Girl] but never materialize. One of very few songs which manage to bring tears to my eyes every time.
There is a lot to chew in this one. This is what war and violence do to families, it all started with the death of her brother, amazing.
I think that there is a possibilty that her brother "never got further than vietnam" because he had to go and fight in the war. just a suggestion.
The assonance of the "eon" rhyme is SO impressive.