Gentle on My Mind

Written by: John Hartford
Arranged By: Don Costa
Originally made famous by: Glen Campbell
From the Album: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings
Label: Reprise Records
Recorded: November 12, 1968

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It's knowin' that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said because
They thought we fit together walkin'
It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find

That you're movin' on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
'cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waitin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

"Gentle on My Mind" is a song written by John Hartford, which won two 1968 Grammy Awards. Hartford himself won the award for Best Folk Performance. The other award, Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male, went to Glen Campbell for his version of Hartford's song.

Hartford said that he was inspired to write the song's poignant lyrics after seeing the film Doctor Zhivago, and that it took about fifteen minutes to write down.

Campbell used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme to his late-1960s TV variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

While Campbell's version remains the best known in the US, versions by Patti Page and Aretha Franklin were also Hot 100 hits in 1968 and 1969, respectively. In the UK, the version by Dean Martin reached number 2 in 1969. Elvis Presley also recorded the song at American Sound Studios in Memphis in January 1969, and the song featured on the award winning album From Elvis in Memphis. More recently, it was recorded by Lucinda Williams and this version was featured over the closing credits in the 2006 comedy movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

R.E.M. performs a cover of this song on Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project, a covers album released by alternative radio KCRW with the participation of 15 different artists.

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