I wrote this song while I was driving home from Arkansas.
Give me no more of this mountain
That the old ones call the hills
Give me no more of the shadows
Of the old Ozark hills
Give me no more of these speeches
Or the flags that strangers fly
Or the unfamiliar tongues
Or the strange god that hears their cry
Get me down off the mountain
Get me down from these hills
Get me off this winding highway
I don’t want to be there still
I don’t want the scenic byways
I don’t want the overlook
Do not take the mountain highroad
Though it promises the view
It’s up here winter’s coming early
And the leaves have start to turn
I feel the chill
In the shadows of the old Ozark hills
Come on down off of the mountain
Come on down off of the hills
Come on down through the winding highway
Past the shadow of the hills
Leave the gullies and the valleys
And the rivers down below
Get out of the mountain shadows
Before fall colors go
Drive away from the Delta
Drive away from the pines
Drive away from the red rolling hills
And the old iron mines
I don’t want to hear your stories
Or place your stone among my cares
I don’t want your gifts of kindness
To carry with me everywhere
Give me mess and honest anger
Give me all my troubled sons
Give me one day of honest work
And spice for the tongue
Give me my red cedars
And the pin oaks of my land
And the friendly facing rises
And the dirt where they stand
It’s the gentle sloping shoulders
Of your grandma in repose
It’s the easy rolling highway
Like a shrug of I suppose
Now I’ve gone so long I’ve traveled
Now I know what is home
It’s the place that you return to
When everything’s gone wrong
Where you sink into your loved ones
And say this is what it is
What it should be this is where forever
Now until the end.
Come on down off the mountain
Come on down from the hills
Come on down the winding highway
With its soon creeping chill
Let’s go down off the mountain
Let’s go down out of the hills
Let’s go down the winding highway
Why do you linger there still
Come on home.
