We found your name across the chapel door
Carved in cursive with a table fork
Muddy hymnals and some boot marks where you'd been

The shaking preacher told the captain's man
The righteous suffer in a fallen land
And pulled the shade to keep the crowd from peeking in

We found your children by the tavern door
With wooden buttons and an apple core
Playing house and telling everyone you'd drowned

The begging choir told the captain's man
We all assume the worst the best we can
And for a round or two, they'd gladly track you down

We found you sleeping by your lover's stone
A ream of paper and a telephone
A broken bow across a long lost violin

Your lover's angel told the captain's man
It never ends the way we had it planned
And kissed her palm and placed it on your dreaming head


Lyrics submitted by slickboot, edited by JAlPrufrock

Muddy Hymnal Lyrics as written by Samuel Ervin Beam

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Muddy Hymnal song meanings
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20 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment

    I think the overall story is pretty much all there; it's the tiny nuances I love. For instance, all through the song I get a sense of it taking place at least a century ago - everything seems so archaic, the times of taverns and wooden buttons and captains and preachers. The mention of 'telephone' jars me, bringing me back to the present.

    Deiaon June 27, 2007   Link

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