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Sweet Jesus Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye

Doves pecking wheat rows
Farms long roused from sleep
Mack asks the Lord’s blessing
We jump in his heap
Through a close alley
Across a hushed street
I crash through the bank door
And stomp dust from my feet

Chorus:

I have stood at the crossroads
I have wondered which way
Been knocked to my knees
Reached my hands out to pray
Rough sanded by desert
A-tumbled in flood
Sweet Jesus, don’t kiss me goodbye
Sweet Jesus, don’t kiss me goodbye

Tellers stand ga-ga
I’m gathering swag
Got a conscripted customer
Holding the bag
Mack revs the engine
Foot hard to the brake
Cries, coppers are coming,
Scram, for Christ’s sake!

(Chorus)

Shall not inheritance
Devolve on the meek
And those taking offense
Turn a fresh cheek
Mack shot to pieces
I’m dead on the run
Father forgive me
In the name of…the Son

(Chorus)

This song was inspired by the 1975 album “Have Moicy” by Michael Hurley , the Unholy Modal Rounders, and Jeffery Frederick and the Clamtones. I hear “Sweet Jesus” as alternating an up-tempo verse with the plaintive, dirge-like chorus.

(Words by Lonesome Al; Lodestar Music, 4-14-08)

©2021 Hal Dygert