Summer Side of Life
Album - 1971 - Debaser id 60904

He was standin' by the highway
With a sign that just said "mother"
When he heard a driver comin'
'bout a half a mile away
Then he held the sign up higher
Where no decent soul could miss it
It was ten degrees or colder
Down by bolder dam that day
He was raised up in milwaukee
Though he never was that famous
He was just a road musician
To the taverns he would go
Singin' songs about the ramblin'
The lovin' girls and gamblin'
How the world fell on his shoulders
Back in boulder I don't know

It was out in arizona
That he heard the lady listenin'
To each word that he was sayin'
To each line that he would write


So he sat down by her table and
They talked about the weather
Ninety-eight point six and risin'
Down by boulder dam that day

And she told him she would take him
For a ride in the mornin' sun
Back in boulder he had told her
"i don't know when I had a better friend"

Now he's traded off his martin
But his troubles are not over
For his feet are almost frozen
And the sun is sinkin' low
Won't you listen to me brother
If you ever loved your mother
Please pull off on the shoulder
If you're goin' milwaukee way
It's ten degrees and getting colder
Down by boulder dam today

He came down through fields of green
On the summer side of life
His love was right

There were no illusions
On the summer side of life
Only tenderness

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why he would cry
The whole day long

There was young girls everywhere
On the summer side of life
They talked all night

To the young men that they knew
On the summer side of life
Goin' off to fight

And if you saw them now
You'd wonder why they would cry
The whole day long

He came down through fields of green
On the summer side of life
He prayed all night

Then he walked into a house
Where love had been misplaced
His chance to waste

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why he would cry
The whole day long

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why

There's a house on a hill
By a worn down, weathered old mill
In the valley below where the river winds
There's no such thing as bad times
And a soft southern flame
Oh, Cotton Jenny's her name
She wakes me up when the sun goes down
And the wheel of love goes 'round

Wheels of love go 'round
Love go 'round
Love go 'round
A joyful sound
I ain't got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go 'round

When a new day begins
I go down to the cotton gin
And I make my time worthwhile to them
Then I climb back up again
Then she waits by the door
Oh Cotton Jenny, I'm sore
And she rubs my feet while the sun goes down
And the wheel of love goes 'round

Wheels of love go 'round
Love go 'round
Love go 'round
A joyful sound
I ain't got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go 'round

In the hot, sickly south
When they say "well shut my mouth"
I can never be free from the cotton grind
But I know I've got what's mine
With a soft southern flame
Oh, Cotton Jenny's her name
she wakes me up when the sun goes down
and the wheel of love goes round

Wheels of love go 'round
Love go 'round
Love go 'round
A joyful sound
I ain't got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go 'round
The wheel goes 'round
'Round and 'round