Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Bang the Drum Slowly

Bang the Drum Slowly

Bang the Drum Slowly
(Emmylou Harris/Guy Clark)

I meant to ask you how to fix that car.
I always meant to ask you about the war.
And what you saw across the bridge too far.
Did it leave a scar?
Or how you navigated wings of fire and steel,
Up where heaven had no more secrets to conceal.
And still you found the ground beneath your wheels.
How did it feel?

Cho: Bang the drum slowly. play the pipe lowly.
     To dust be returning. From dust, we begin.
     Bang the drum slowly. I'll speak of things holy
     Above and below me, world without end.

I meant to ask you how, when everything seemed lost,
And your fate was in a game of dice they tossed,
There was still that line you would never cross
At any cost.
I meant to ask you how you lived, what you believed,
With nothing but your heart up your sleeve.
And if you ever really were deceived
By the likes of me.

Gone now is the day and gone the sun.
There is peace now tonight all over Arlington.
But the song of my life will still be sung
By the light of the moon you hung.
I meant to ask you how to plow that field.
I meant to bring you water from the well,
And be the one beside you when you fell.
Could you tell?

Sung by Emmylou Harris on "Red Dirt Girl,"
JD