"gentle on my mind"

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dang if this ersatz-country rural-schmaltz hit doesn't actually calm me

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 June 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

i forgot to mention that it's sort of sexist as well.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 June 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

though i guess it's not sexist if a woman sings it. sort of like nico singing lightfoot's "i'm not sayin'"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 June 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Its knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And its knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you on the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
It keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted On their columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking
Its just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're moving on the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Through the wheat fields and the clotheslines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman crying to her mother
Cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And a summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you
Walking on the backroads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

The shutters creak and autumn winds
That Make me draw inside myself in silence
Cross-legged now I sit and watch
The endless chase of leaves across my yard
And laying down my hairbrush
I lean back within my window seat and find
That you're moving on the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind

Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 June 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

This is one of the greatest songs ever.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

"it's nice to know that you'll just be waiting around for me, that i can come back and fuck you whenever, and you won't call me while i'm on the road like all those other hos"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

One of those songs where you take pause to just feel how utterly awesome it is, but shuddering a bit at its aesthetic.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

mark eitzel does a great version of this on his covers record (one of like four songs on that album that actually works well).

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

One of the few singles to survive my mum's cavalier approach to record storage was Dean Martin's version of Gentle On My Mind. So I grew up with it and it sits in a deep place for me. I don't think I ever really understood the situation it describes, but no matter, "something that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking" and opening lines are unbeatable.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

Yes, that line is my favorite as well.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

never liked it as much as the other Glen Campbell hits. but heard it on the radio the other day and really listened to it for the first time in a while. nashville's first real dylan ripoff, and a really good record--the sentiments are a bit, uh, questionable.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

not sure what makes this sexist. flip this line...

And some other woman crying to her mother
Cause she turned and I was gone

to this...

And some other man crying to his mother
Cause he turned and I was gone

and it could just as easily be a woman singing to a man.

the whole song has a lot more heart and beauty in it than, say, dwight yoakam singing "i'll be gone in the morning, in the morning i'll be gone/'cause i'm not one for hanging on."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

i agree that is has heart and beauty! as do other songs with a similar theme.

like i said, it could be song by a woman--and has been, by bobbie gentry. i suppose it could be taken as a feminist statement, in a cheap way (like nico's "i'm not sayin'" which admittedly is both bracing and an astoundingly good record).

but it definitely falls into that "ladies of the road" love-em-and-leave-em mode, only it sort of romanticizes the whole situation on both ends. were there relationships like this? were they as romantic and happy on the women's end as the men believed them to be? probably not.

I is got to see some people
.......I ain't never seen,
Gotta highball thru some country
.......Whah I never been.

I don't know which way I'm travelin'--
.......Far or near,
All I knows fo' certain is
.......I cain't stay here.

(from sterling a. brown, "long gone"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

i mean, are most country blues sexist, not to say misogynistic? yeah. are they often poignant and frightening and lovely and moving and beautiful and everything else? yeah.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:26 (twenty years ago)

country blues are also less sentimental than this song, which is pretty mushy isn't it? i guess that's what riles me a bit. but i started this thread because i like the song!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

It's a great song, especially the Campbell version (that whole record is really good, actually. "Bowling Green" especially).

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

Switch the genders and I've been in a relationship like this. I think I put this on the last CD I made her.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

She wasn't exactly a hobo though.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCVQ3w3sKxA

amazing

― tickle me lmao (unregistered), Sunday, 3 October 2010 03:08 (fifteen years ago)

all of the hartford live clips on youtube thrill me... or at least a good chunk of 'em. 'let him go on' and others... there are a few videos that people have digitized i think.

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Sunday, 3 October 2010 03:24 (fifteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uZ4_5dgfs0&feature=related

what a goddamn blessed fearless weirdo.

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Sunday, 3 October 2010 03:43 (fifteen years ago)

This is one of the greatest songs ever.

― billstevejim, Sunday, 3 October 2010 06:14 (fifteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJiCZ8_cN1w

― -hot-dean ge-fever- (buzza), Sunday, 3 October 2010 08:19 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

has a bit more impact to think of this song now w/glen campbell's condition.

― omar little, Saturday, 3 March 2012 00:13 (fourteen years ago)

two years pass...

love this song, glen campbell's version is magnificent

― marcos, Monday, 8 December 2014 19:33 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJY5RjuHHDY

― small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Wednesday, 23 December 2015 18:21 (ten years ago)

Kinda crazy how many versions of this were recorded in the span of a couple of years - Glen Campbell, Elvis, Dean Martin, Leonard Nimoy...

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 24 December 2015 01:25 (ten years ago)

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