One day I got a chance to meet Buddy Killen, who was the founder of Tree Publishing. He gave me a job as a song plugger, listening to tapes from new writers and pitching them to the singers. So I moved to Nashville. This was in 1964, and I remember seeing the movie The Asphalt Jungle, with Sterling Hayden as the lead. He was a country boy just trying to get back to the South. He was a bank robber, but he wasn’t really a bad guy; he was the kind of bank robber that you liked. He’d been in jail and then got involved with some bad folks and they robbed a bank and the law was after him. He got within view of his old country home up on a hill, and they caught up with him and killed him. That movie stayed with me for a while. That was the seed, I guess you could call it, for “Green, Green Grass of Home.”
I had an office in the Tree building on Music Row, so I went in one day and started thinking about that movie and I started to write the song. It only took a couple of hours to finish it, so it must have been meant to happen. Even in 1964, though, some people thought it sounded dated, like a song that Webb Pierce or Hank Snow might have done 10 or 20 years before that. But once it got recorded the first time, it took off like crazy. So that goes to show you that the music business folks don’t always know what people are going to like.
Kelso Herston was a guitar player from Alabama who was living in Nashville. He produced the first record on the song. It was recorded by a fellow named Johnny Darrell, who was running the Holiday Inn over on West End Avenue. Kelso produced Johnny’s record for United Artists, and it did okay, but it really took off later. Porter Wagoner covered it and then Jerry Lee Lewis covered it. Then Tom Jones heard Jerry Lee’s version and he loved it. A lot of the British singers loved the Memphis rock and roll music. They loved Elvis and Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins. The Beatles were influenced by them, too. So Tom Jones cut it and it went to #1 in the UK and all around the world after that. Tom Jones’ version has probably been the biggest yet, in terms of royalties and airplay. It’s paid for a lot of dresses and purses for my wife over the years. But since then, it’s been cut over and over and over by everyone from Johnny Cash to Elvis to Joan Baez. Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) even did it on his television show.
When Porter did his version, we added the recitation at the end. Porter always loved doing recitations and nearly everyone who cut it after that kept that. I’ve always loved recitations, too. I think it can really make a song memorable if it’s done right, like George (Jones) did with “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”
Sometimes people ask me what the man in the song was in jail for. You know, mothers who have sons and girlfriends who have boyfriends they haven’t seen for a while — they’re always going to defend them. They’ll stand up for them no matter what. So I don’t think he was in there for doing something too terrible. Maybe he just had some bad luck or had been in the wrong place at the wrong time or done something by accident. That was always the thought in my mind when I wrote it but I never really said so in the song.
That was only the second song I ever had recorded and it’s been my biggest hit. I had a song recorded by Charlie Walker before that while I was still living in Alabama. Then I wrote “Green, Green Grass” about three or four months after I moved to Nashville. I was really lucky to have written a song like that so soon after coming here. I’ve been with Sony/Tree for 45 years now. I either didn’t have the sense to move on, or maybe “Green, Green Grass of Home” welded me to a spot there, I’m not sure.
Someone at Sony/Tree told me recently that they had done some research on it and found out that it’s been recorded by over 700 different artists in every major language in the world. There have even been a couple of TV movie scripts based on it. It’s made a lot of money in Japan, too. I don’t think they sing it in Japanese. I think they just learn it phonetically and sing it in English. A lot of bar bands play it, too. Maybe it makes a lot of money from the karaoke machines or something.
It’s still pretty staggering to me what it’s done. I’ve never had any formal music training, so it’s pretty amazing that a simple country kid from the hills in Alabama could have done something that’s had such an impact on so many people’s lives.
Green, Green Grass of Home
The old hometown looks the same as I step down from the train,
and there to meet me is my Mama and Papa.
Down the road I look and there runs Mary hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
The old house is still standing though the paint is cracked and dry,
and there’s that old oak tree I used to play on.
Down the lane I walk with my sweet Mary, hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
(spoken)
Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me
and I realize that I was only dreaming.
For there’s a guard and there’s a sad old padre
arm in arm we’ll walk at daybreak.
Then I’ll touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree as they lay me ’neath the green, green grass of home.
To purchase the original demo of this song,
go to www.countrysongdemos.com
Halfway Home Café
Story by Ricky Skaggs
Song written by Paul Overstreet and Johnny Barranco
Recorded by Ricky Skaggs
Paul Overstreet pitched “Halfway Home Café” to me on a demo tape that he had done. I had already done two or three of his songs during my career, so we had a relationship already. When I heard it, I thought, “Wow, what a great story,” and I knew it would work as a gospel song on this bluegrass record that I was working on, so it covered a lot of bases for me.
When I heard the song, I knew I wanted to tell that story. I wanted to be the waiter in the restaurant who was sort of eavesdropping on all these different conversations in the café. Paul wrote it from the waiter’s point of view. Just imagine the different conversations you hear in a day’s time as a waiter: serving coffee, serving breakfast, serving burgers. You’re going to hear a hundred stories a day, and these were just three of those stories. There was a man coming home from prison, and another man ending an affair, and then a young girl who was a runaway on her way back home.
It is such a great song about life in general and the bad choices people sometimes make. It’s a great story about forgiveness and redemption, too. People sometimes think that forgiveness is a little thing, but it’s not. It’s really the message of the cross. The world sometimes looks at Christians and they think we have it all together, or that we think we have it altogether — but we don’t. Jesus had it altogether, but we don’t always.
I was listening to a Focus on the Family radio show one day. I just happened to turn it on. And they were talking to couples that had either separated or gotten divorced and remarried each other. There was one couple in particular I remember. This man said, “I was in a honky-tonk and I was listening to the radio and this Ricky Skaggs song came on. I was sitting there and I was with someone I shouldn’t have been with, and when I heard that song, it broke me so bad. The conviction of God just came over me so strong. I knew I had been found out.” Then he said, “I got up from the table and told her, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I can’t see you anymore. This has been wrong from the start,’” — just like it says in the song. He said, “I called my wife and told her, ‘I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. Can I come back home?’ And she said, ‘I’ve been praying for you. I was praying for you just now when the phone rang.’”
Just to hear that you were a little piece of this mosaic, this picture that God was painting in this person’s life for His purposes, is amazing. To know that God still uses broken people to help put
other broken people and broken lives back together again is incredible to me. He loves doing that.
Halfway Home Café
I was pourin’ coffee for table number one
I couldn’t help but hearing what was going on
It got my attention when I heard a young man’s voice
Saying, “Sheriff, I’ll be going now, if it’s alright with you boys.
Those years I spent in prison stole too much time from me
I won’t waste another minute if I’m really free.”
CHORUS:
I’m goin’ home my family’s waitin’ for me, I’m goin’ home
I’m amazed that they still love me
They forgive me for the bitter seeds I’ve sown
Heaven knows I’ve been away too long
So now I’m going home.
A burger and a special for table number eight
I was bussin’ number seven when I heard her young heart break
He told her it was over they could never meet again
That he found a taste of courage twisting on his wedding band
Her tears began to fall but they could not touch his heart
I heard him say “I’m sorry, but it was all wrong from the start.”
CHORUS
BRIDGE:
There’s a million other stories from the Halfway Home Café
It’s a never ending saga and they’re played out every day
But this one’s finally over. The foods all put away
And the coffee pot stands empty at the Halfway Home Café
Over in the corner at table number three
Sits a father and a runaway, well, it looks that way to me
I said “I hate to interrupt you, but it’s really getting’ late.”
The young girl looked up smilin.’ She said “Mister that’s O.K.
I’m goin’ home. . .”
CHORUS
Harper Valley PTA
Story by Tom T. Hall
Song written by Tom T. Hall
Recorded by Jeannie C. Riley
When I was a small boy, in the town where I grew up, there was a lady who used to have parties on Saturday nights. Obviously, I changed her name in the song. She would have people over and they would have drinks and talk and listen to records. It wasn’t a crack house or anything wild like that. They were all pretty respectable people, and she had a daughter. This is all in the song.
I was on my way from Nashville to Franklin, Tennessee, where I lived, which is about 15 miles from Nashville. I saw a sign that said, “Harpeth Valley Utility District.” I changed the “Harpeth” to “Harper” because I thought it would be a good name to use in the song.
I had this song around for a while, but I hadn’t finished it. I played what I had for my publisher and he said, “You’ve got to get off this story-song kick and start writing some regular songs.” At the time, the thing in Nashville was what I called “little darling” songs — love songs. I don’t say that to denigrate them, because there were some great songs written in that form, but I was not very good at it. I had studied American literature and journalism, so my mind was more bent toward storytelling. I got by for a few years doing that in Nashville. The kind of songs that I liked to write were songs like “Harper Valley PTA.” I had been told to write about what I knew and these were people and places that I knew, so I stuck with that. I still write that way. My wife Dixie and I are still in the business of writing songs for bluegrass and acoustic singers and bands. We have a studio at the house with no drums or piano or anything; it’s all geared toward acoustic music.
I put that song down on acoustic guitar, and gave it to someone who was thinking of recording it. He took it home and then said, “I don’t think I can record that. I played it for my kids and they said nothing like this would ever happen in a school, and no kind of characters like that lived in our neighborhood.”
One day a DJ called me and said, “Do you have any songs for girls to sing?” His wife, whose name was Alice Joy, was a singer and she was looking for a new song. So I said, “Yes, I’ve got a new song called ‘Harper Valley PTA’ that hasn’t been cut yet.” So she recorded it. I don’t remember what happened after that, but Shelby Singleton of Plantation Records heard the song. He wanted this part-time secretary in Nashville named Jeanie C. Riley to record it.
In those days, they would make up acetates and send them out to all the prominent disc jockeys. They recorded it on a Friday night, and it was a hit record by about Tuesday night. “Harper Valley PTA” was the largest selling single of the time. The single sold about seven million copies even before the album came out. In those days, 100,000 records was a big hit, so you can imagine what a sensation it was. It was #1 on several charts: easy listening, R&B, country, and rock and roll. Then later they made a movie about it, and then a TV series. So from the time of its inception, it just snowballed.
Harper Valley PTA
I want to tell you all a story ’bout a Harper Valley widowed wife
Who had a teenage daughter who attended Harper Valley Junior High
Well her daughter came home one afternoon and didn’t even stop to play
She said, “Mom, I got a note here from the Harper Valley PTA”
The note said, “Mrs. Johnson, you’re wearing your dresses way too high
It’s reported you’ve been drinking and a-runnin’ ’round with men and going wild
And we don’t believe you ought to be bringing up your little girl this way”
It was signed by the secretary, Harper Valley PTA
Well, it happened that the PTA was gonna meet that very afternoon
They were sure surprised when Mrs. Johnson wore her miniskirt into the room
And as she walked up to the blackboard, I still recall the words she had to say
She said, “I’d like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA”
Well, there’s Bobby Taylor sittin’ there and seven times he’s asked me for a date
Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he’s away
And Mr. Baker, can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town?
And shouldn’t widow Jones be told to keep her window shades all pulled completely down?
Well, Mr. Harper couldn’t be here ’cause he stayed too long at Kelly’s Bar again
And if you smell Shirley Thompson’s breath, you’ll find she’s had a little nip of gin
Then you have the nerve to tell me you think that as a mother I’m not fit
Well, this is just a little Peyton Place and you’re all Harper Valley hypocrites
No I wouldn’t put you on because it really did, it happened just this way
The day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA
The day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA
Have You Forgotten?
Story by Darryl Worley
Song written by Darryl Worley and Wynn Varble
Recorded by Darryl Worley
In 2002, Jack Tilley invited us to be a part of the Hope and Freedom Tour. We started in Kuwait and then went on to Afghanistan, but we spent most our time in Afghanistan.
When you go to a place like that with someone like him, you see things that most entertainers are not going to see. It’s his job to go into the toughest places and talk to the troops. He’s their liaison and takes the word back to Washington and says, “This is what the boys and girls need out there.” So we went not just to the big airbases and places where there was a lot of security, but also to all the forward operating bases and the small outposts. We were able to take our flattops and go out there with him. It was a very surreal and eye-opening experience for me.
When we started flying home, I told my manager at the time, “When I get home, I want to do something for these troops. I’m not sure what form it’s going to take, but I want to do something.” I grew up in a military family and I grew up thinking I knew all about these things, but I came back from there with
a new saying: “You don’t really know until you go.” I never had really written anything about 9/11. I hadn’t digested the whole experience yet, and I started thinking, “What could I write that would pull all of this together?”
While I was there, I was amazed at how many soldiers had reupped as a result of 9/11. The level of patriotism and commitment was really inspiring. I got to thinking about how I felt on 9/11, jumping in my vehicle and heading home to West Tennessee from Nashville. I drove mostly on the back roads and there were flags flying and bumper stickers everywhere. It was like driving down a parade route. I thought, “What a shame that it takes something of this magnitude and something this horrendous to make us pull together and display our colors and shout from the mountaintops that we are Americans.” I don’t know that I’ll ever see anything like that again.
When I got home from my trip to Afghanistan, I got my stuff together and headed back here to West Tennessee so I could be home for Christmas. It was Christmas Eve 2002 and I drove that same route and I remember only seeing a flag or two. It just ripped my heart out, and I thought, “Here we are just a year after this tragedy and people are already starting to forget.” I thought, “We have to write a song to remind people what happened.”
Right after 9/11, I had gone to a gym near where I live and I saw a guy there who I’ve known most of my life. He was just about in tears because his daughter had been trapped in New York City when this happened. They couldn’t reach her for a day or two and they didn’t know if she was okay or what had happened. They were basket cases. I wanted to help them, but there was really nothing anybody could do. She ended up being fine and she got out of there.
Then, after I got back from Afghanistan, I saw the same guy at the same gym and he made a comment that floored me. He said, “I think this country’s just looking for a fight.” It caught me off guard. First of all, anybody who thinks that we could’ve taken that lick on the chin and not done anything about it, as far as I’m concerned, is a nut. I looked at him and said, “Are you the same guy who was a basket case when his daughter was missing for two days? Maybe I misunderstood your story or something because I don’t think you’re even the same guy.”
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music: The Inspirational Stories behind 101 of Your Favorite Country Songs Page 8
