Ballad of Barbara Lyrics

The song Ballad of Barbara is performed by Johnny Cash in the album named Love, God, Murder in the year 2000 .



In a southern town where I was born
That's where I got my education
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods
And I wondered at creation.

I recall the sun in a sky of blue
And the smell of green things growin'
And the seasons chang'd and I lived each day
Just the way the wind was blowin'.

Then I heard of a cultured city life
Breath takin' lofty steeples
And the day I called myself a man
I left my land and my people.

And I rambled north and I rambled east
And I tested and I tasted
And a girl or two, took me round and round
But they always left me wasted.

In a world that's all concrete and steel
With nothin' green ever growin'
Where the buildings hide the risin' sun
And they blocked the free winds from blowin.

Where you sleep all day and you wake all night
To a world of drink and laughter
I met that girl that I was sure would be
The one that I was after.

In a soft blue gown and formal tux
Beneath that lofty steeple
He said, "Do you Barbara, take this man,
Will you be one of his people?"

And she said, "I will." and she said, "I do."
And the world looked mighty pretty
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat
'Cause she loved the noisy city.

But the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky
And I longed for green things growin'
And the thoughts of home and the people there
But she'd not agreed to goin'.

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me
With a look that wasn't pretty
And she turned into concrete and steel
And she said, "I'll take the city."

Now the cars go by on the interstate
And my pack is on my shoulder
But I'm goin' home, where I belong
Much wiser now and older.



Johnny Cash - Love, God, Murder

May 2000

  1. I Walk the Line
  2. Oh, What a Dream
  3. All Over Again
  4. Little at a Time
  5. My Old Faded Rose
  6. Happiness Is You
  7. Flesh and Blood
  8. I Tremble for You
  9. I Feel Better All Over
  10. 'Cause I Love You
  11. Ballad of Barbara
  12. Ring of Fire
  13. My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You
  14. While I've Got It on My Mind
  15. I Still Miss Someone
  16. One Rose (That's Left in My Heart)
  17. What on Earth Will You Do (For Heaven's Sake)
  18. My God is Real
  19. It Was Jesus
  20. Why Me Lord?
  21. Greatest Cowboy of Them All
  22. Redemption
  23. Great Speckled Bird
  24. Old Account
  25. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
  26. When He Comes
  27. Kneeling Drunkard's Plea
  28. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
  29. Man in White
  30. Belshazzar
  31. Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy's Prayer)
  32. Oh Come, Angel Band
  33. Folsom Prison Blues
  34. Delia's Gone
  35. Mr. Garfield
  36. Orleans Parish Prison
  37. When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)
  38. Sound of Laughter
  39. Cocaine Blues
  40. Hardin Wouldn't Run
  41. Long Black Veil
  42. Austin Prison
  43. Joe Bean
  44. Going to Memphis
  45. Don't Take Your Guns to Town
  46. Highway Patrolman
  47. Jacob Green
  48. Wall

Ballad of Barbara