Merle Haggard

by Haggard, Merle; Cusic, Don

• ISBN13: 9780634032950
• ISBN10: 063403295X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corp

Summary

Merle Haggard is known as "the poet of the common man." His songs are some of the most important and influential in the history of country music, on par with the likes of those by Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. Through a life as tumultuous as his music, scarred by struggles with inner demons, incarceration and addiction - all of which he has brutally and directly confronted through his lyrics - Haggard has emerged with an American songbook that captures the rough side of life with an unblinking eye gazing on the workings of the human heart. This collection comes on the heels of his acclaimed album If I Could Only Fly, his first new studio album in four years, which finds the former wildman coping with aging, taking on familial responsibilities, and learning to appreciate the wonders of home life versus the pitfalls of the highway. Haggard's lyrics demonstrate why this acclaimed member of the Country Music Hall of Fame is a legend who will live forever.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
Don Cusic
Biography	xvii
Reflections in the Mirror
I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am	5	(1)
My Own Kind of Hat	5	(1)
Sing a Family Song	6	(1)
My Life's Been Grand	7	(1)
I've Done It All	7	(1)
Someday We'll Look Back	8	(1)
Love Keeps Hanging On	8	(1)
(Not Till I Was) Old Enough to Fight	9	(1)
Tulare Dust	10	(1)
Grandma Harp	10	(1)
They're Tearing the Labor Camps Down	11	(1)
Hungry Eyes	11	(1)
I Can't Get Away	12	(1)
Driftwood	13	(1)
I Can't Stand Me	14	(1)
Kern River	14	(1)
I'm a White Boy	15	(2)
I Haven't Found Her Yet	17	(1)
Got Lonely Too Early This Morning	17	(1)
Thirty again	18	(1)
Every Fool has a Rainbow	18	(1)
Everybody's had the Blues	19	(1)
Bleachers	19	(1)
Man from Another Time	20	(5)
Prison
Branded Man	25	(1)
Mama Tried	25	(1)
The Running Kind	26	(1)
My Hands Are Tied	27	(1)
Huntsville	27	(1)
Life in Prison	28	(1)
I wonder if They Ever Think of Me	29	(1)
Sing Me Back Home	29	(1)
Mama's Prayer	30	(3)
Barrooms
Swinging Doors	33	(1)
The Bottle Let Me Down	33	(1)
Back to the Barrooms Again	34	(1)
Drink Up and Be Somebody	34	(1)
I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink	35	(1)
I Don't Want to Sober Up Tonight	36	(1)
I'll Leave the Bottle on the Bar	36	(1)
Honky Tonk Night Time Man	37	(1)
C. C. Waterback	38	(1)
Wine Take Me Away	38	(1)
Skid Row	39	(1)
Jimmy the Broom	40	(1)
I Wonder Where I'll Find You at Tonight	40	(1)
I Had a Beautiful Time	41	(1)
It's Been a Great Afternoon	42	(1)
Turnin' Off a Memory	42	(1)
I Can't Hold Myself in Line	43	(1)
I Never Go Home Anymore	43	(1)
What Am I Gonna Do (with the Rest of My Life)	44	(1)
Some of Us Never Learn	44	(1)
Why Am I Drinkin'	45	(1)
Reasons to Quit	45	(1)
I Threw Away the Rose	46	(3)
Stories and Observations
Okie From Muskogee	49	(1)
Irma Jackson	49	(1)
The Farmer's Daughter	50	(1)
The Fightin' Side of Me	51	(1)
Big Time Annie's Square	52	(1)
Workin' Man Blues	52	(1)
A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today	53	(1)
Rainbow Stew	54	(1)
Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)	55	(1)
If We Make It through December	56	(1)
Holding Things Together	57	(1)
Daddy Won't Be Home Again for Christmas	57	(1)
Bobby Wants A Puppy Dog for Christmas	58	(1)
Let's Stop Pretending	58	(1)
1929	59	(1)
The Way It Was in `51	60	(1)
Amber Waves of Grain	60	(1)
The Immigrant	61	(1)
Big City	61	(1)
Shade Tree (Fix-It Man)	62	(1)
The Only Trouble with Me	63	(1)
The Girl Turned Ripe	63	(1)
My Ramona	64	(1)
A Man's Gotta Give Up a Lot	65	(1)
Home Is Where a Kid Grows Up	65	(1)
Billy Overcame His Size	66	(1)
Me and Crippled Soldiers	67	(1)
The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde	68	(1)
Shotgun and a Pistol	69	(1)
Killers Three	70	(2)
All-American Cowboy	72	(1)
I Wish Things Were Simple Again	72	(5)
Travelin'
Ramblin' Fever	77	(1)
Silver Wings	77	(1)
Movin' On	78	(1)
Good Old American Guest	79	(1)
No More Trains to Ride	80	(1)
Someone Told My Story in A Song	80	(1)
September in Miami	81	(1)
The Seashores of Old Mexico	82	(1)
Red Bandana	83	(1)
Here in Frisco	83	(1)
Going Where the Lonely Go	84	(1)
Gotta Go See the World	84	(1)
Sky-Bo	85	(1)
Hag s Dixie Blues #2	86	(1)
Old Man From the Mountain	87	(4)
In the Spotlight
Footlights	91	(1)
This Song of Mine	91	(1)
All I Want to Do Is Sing My Song	92	(1)
No One to Sing For (but the Band)	93	(1)
Please Mr. DJ	94	(1)
Leonard	94	(1)
Goodbye Lefty	95	(1)
Daddy Frank	96	(1)
White Line Fever	97	(1)
New York City Blues	97	(1)
After Dark	98	(1)
Make-Up and Faded Blue Jeans	98	(1)
There's Somebody Else on Your Mind	99	(1)
This Is the Song We Sing	100	(1)
The Okie from Muskogee's Comin' Home	100	(1)
White Man Singin' the Blues	101	(1)
When My Last Song Is Sung	102	(3)
Love - Lookin'
Always Wanting You	105	(1)
I've Got a Yearning	105	(1)
I Think I'll Stay	106	(1)
If I Could Be Him	106	(1)
Shelly's Winter Love	107	(1)
If You Wanta Be My Woman	107	(1)
Love Will Find You	108	(1)
The Day the Rains Came	108	(1)
Don't Ever Let Your Lover Sleep Alone	109	(1)
Because You Can't Be Mine	110	(1)
Wouldn't That Be Something	110	(1)
Broken Friend	111	(1)
I Just Want to Look at You One More Time	112	(1)
Keep Me from Cryin' Today	112	(1)
Shopping for Dresses	112	(1)
Our Paths May never Cross	113	(4)
Love - Found
Life's Like Poetry	117	(1)
Today I Started Loving You Again	117	(1)
I Always Get Lucky with You	118	(1)
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star	118	(1)
All of Me Belongs to You	119	(1)
You'll Always Be Special	120	(1)
Without You on My Side	120	(1)
Can't Break the Habit	120	(1)
I Didn't Mean to Love You	121	(1)
Don't Seem like we've Been Together All Our Lives	122	(1)
Let's Pretend We're Not Married Tonight	122	(1)
Let's Chase Each Other Around the Room	123	(1)
Roses in the Winter	123	(1)
Waitin' On the Good Life to Come	124	(1)
Thank You for Keeping My House	124	(1)
A Shoulder to Cry On	124	(1)
Love Me When You Can	125	(1)
Good Times	126	(1)
After Loving You	126	(1)
My Woman Keeps Lovin' Her Man	127	(1)
Someday We'll Know	127	(1)
Love Don't Hurt Everytime	128	(1)
Susie	128	(1)
The Sunny Side of My Life	129	(1)
Livin' on Your Love	129	(1)
Seeing Eye Dog	130	(1)
These Mem'ries We're Making Tonight	130	(1)
My Favorite Memory	131	(1)
I've Got a Darlin' (for a Wife)	131	(4)
Love - Losing
The Emptiest Arms in the World	135	(1)
Things Aren't Funny Anymore	135	(1)
It's all the Movies	136	(1)
I'm a Good Loser	136	(1)
I'll Always Know	137	(1)
Look Over Me	138	(1)
I'm Bringin' Home Good News	138	(1)
House of Memories	139	(1)
I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can	140	(1)
I Think It's Gone Forever	141	(1)
Whatever Happened to Me	141	(1)
Why Can't I Cry	142	(1)
Chill Factor	143	(1)
Wake Up	143	(1)
I Wonder What She'll think about me Leaving	144	(1)
I Forget You Every Day	145	(1)
The Dream	145	(1)
A Place to Fall Apart	146	(1)
My Past Is Present	146	(1)
You Don't Have Very Far to Go	147	(1)
You'll Never Love Me Now	148	(1)
Somewhere Between	148	(1)
Somebody Else You've Known	149	(1)
If I Had Left It Up to You	150	(1)
The Longer You Wait	150	(1)
I'll Look Over You	151	(1)
No More You and Me	151	(1)
Life's Just Not the Way It Used to Be	152	(1)
The Girl Who Made Me Laugh	152	(1)
Am I Standing in Your Way	153	(1)
If You've Got Time (to Say Good-Bye)	153	(1)
Mixed-Up Mess of a Heart	154	(1)
Nobody Knows I'm Hurtin	154	(1)
Love and Honor	155	(1)
I Think I'm Gonna Live Forever	155	(1)
For All I Know	156	(1)
A Thousand Lies Ago	157	(1)
Somewhere Down the Line	157	(1)
More Than This Old Heart Can Take	158	(1)
(I'm Gonna Paint Me) A Bed of Roses	159	(1)
Nothin's Worse Than Losing	159	(1)
I Think I've Found a Way (to Live Without You)	160	(1)
Gone Crazy	160	(1)
Someday When Things Are Good	161	(1)
If You Hated Me	162	(1)
One Sweet Hello	162	(1)
I'd Rather Be Gone	163	(4)
Spirit
Thanking the Good Lord	167	(1)
Jesus, Take a Hold	167	(1)
Silverthorn Mountain	168	(1)
Santa Claus and Popcorn	169	(1)
Goin' Home for Christmas	169	(1)
Grandma's Christmas Card	170	(1)
From Graceland to the Promised Land	170	(1)
Don't Give Up on Me	171