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That Girl From Brownsville, Texas Lyrics
I say "God, if you ain't smiling on me, then you ain't no friend of mine."
It's late at night and this motel room's drunk,
I been listening to the lonesome wind crying.
My best friend once said, "Jim, what you cling to,
That's the thing that you had best forget.
For ain't no rose bed ever gonna bloom in an untended field of regrets."
Chorus:
Guess I been busy killing time counting bullet holes in state line signs.
I led a life of lonely drifting trying to rise above the buzzards in my mind.
You get dizzy chasing 'round the tail of what you need to leave behind.
Oh sweet Jesus, won't you help me?
'Cause all I'm trying to do
Is plant them seeds of love with that girl from Brownsville, Texas.
Midnight radio, a crackly white gospel station
Kicking out the sounds of some half-assed revival.
Me, I never much cared for the feelings you get
Quoting scriptures from out of the Bible.
For as the crow flies
I know only one cure for a permanent tear in your eye.
You gotta crank like hell that rope on old sorrow's well
T'til the day that the bucket comes up dry.
[CHORUS]
Now dreams are just prayers without the put on airs...
And though my history of dreams is a scandal
Of back-assward schemes and romantic disasters where Lord, you dealt me more cards than I could handle.
Still from the lips of this half-hearted sinner comes the pledge of a half-baked saint.
'Cause Lord I might finally be willing to become the religious fool you always wanted me to be... if in return we could just tell that girl
I'm the man you and me both know that I ain't.
[CHORUS]
It's late at night and this motel room's drunk,
I been listening to the lonesome wind crying.
My best friend once said, "Jim, what you cling to,
That's the thing that you had best forget.
For ain't no rose bed ever gonna bloom in an untended field of regrets."
I led a life of lonely drifting trying to rise above the buzzards in my mind.
You get dizzy chasing 'round the tail of what you need to leave behind.
Oh sweet Jesus, won't you help me?
'Cause all I'm trying to do
Is plant them seeds of love with that girl from Brownsville, Texas.
Kicking out the sounds of some half-assed revival.
Me, I never much cared for the feelings you get
Quoting scriptures from out of the Bible.
For as the crow flies
I know only one cure for a permanent tear in your eye.
You gotta crank like hell that rope on old sorrow's well
T'til the day that the bucket comes up dry.
And though my history of dreams is a scandal
Of back-assward schemes and romantic disasters where Lord, you dealt me more cards than I could handle.
Still from the lips of this half-hearted sinner comes the pledge of a half-baked saint.
'Cause Lord I might finally be willing to become the religious fool you always wanted me to be... if in return we could just tell that girl
I'm the man you and me both know that I ain't.
[CHORUS]
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Beautiful song.
To me, it's a song about searching for perfection but never achieving it. He wants the purest form of love -- something that is not attainable -- and is even willing to sell himself down the river to Jesus for it. The perfection he seeks is probably based on a romantic ideal (from books, songs, films, folklore etc.), or a real person who he has elevated to unrealistic levels. Again, an ideal.
The song paints a picture of loneliness, sorrow and bring unable to let go of the past. Perhaps he had a girl in mind, but lost her? Time has passed, and the memories have taken on a life of their own. Nobody can take her place now. The dream is unimpeachable.
The character has created a scenario in which there can be no happy ending, only prayers for the impossible.