[00:04.740]It's knowin' that your door is always open
[00:07.390]And your path is free to walk
[00:13.220]That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
[00:15.580]Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
[00:24.260]And it's knowin' I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
[00:28.840]And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
[00:35.510]That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my memory
[00:40.990]That keeps you ever gentle on my mind
[00:47.440]It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy
[00:50.810]Planted on their columns now that bind me
[00:58.380]Or something that somebody said because
[01:01.030]They thought we fit together walkin
[01:07.690]It's just knowing that the world, will not be cursing or forgiving
[01:12.400]When I walk along some railroad track and find
[01:19.850]That you're movin' on the back roads by the rivers of my memory
[01:24.530]And for hours you're just gentle on my mind
[01:31.940]Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
[01:34.770]And the junkyards and the highways come between us
[01:41.610]And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
[01:44.940]'Cause she turned and I was gone
[01:51.760]I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face
[01:56.310]And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
[02:02.510]But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the back roads
[02:07.500]By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind
[02:14.180]I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
[02:18.460]In some train yard
[02:23.020]My beard a ruffnin' coal pile
[02:25.830]And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
[02:32.120]Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
[02:34.390]I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
[02:40.890]That you're waitin' from the back roads
[02:43.300]By the rivers of my memory ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind
[02:46.910]gentle on my mind
[02:51.490]gentle on my mind...
[02:54.250]