Would You Hold It Against Me (Digitally Remastered)

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 are dried upon some line

That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my memory

And 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 somethin' that somebody said

Because they thought we fit together walkin'

It's just knowin' that the world will not be cursin' or forgivin'

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 clotheslines

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 'til 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 roughenin' coal pile

And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands 'round the 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 memories

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind