In my travels over the years, I kept seeing the sign "Cemetery Road" everywhere. Since it is so ubiquitous, I felt there must be a universal message in there somewhere. One Cemetery Road sign in particular on Hwy 287 from Amarillo to Dallas, there was a plowed field running alongside a little dirt road to a big grove of trees where the cemetery is located. I visualized a farmer out there on his tractor watching the funeral processions come and go and his reflections on life and death. I got stuck with the song for a while, then when playing a gig for the Army's 121st Aviation Company (Soc Trang Tigers) reunion one year, I wrote the middle verse in honor of the lives disrupted by the war.
With two verses before the chorus and three vignettes, I am pretty aware this song is not what is selling currently. As with most of my songs, I just want to know it gets the message across and is capable of touching people.
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(verse)
Brother hated Daddy - I don’t know why he did
I guess Dad was pretty hard on him – he was the oldest kid
He didn’t cry when Daddy died, though my tears fairly flowed
By the grave beneath the big trees out on Cemetery Road
(verse)
Bud moved off to Dallas with a friend who I won’t name
Lived a life of dissipation – would have made my dad ashamed
He died from complications of the reckless seeds he sowed
Now he rests in peace by Daddy out on Cemetery Road
(chorus)
If you’ve got grudges, let ‘em go
If you love somebody, tell ‘em so
If you’ve got burdens, lighten up your load
Burdens won’t survive that one-way trip down Cemetery Road
(verse)
Billy loved Alissa since I can’t remember when
When he went to the service, she married his best friend
We’ve been together twenty years and I’m pretty sure I know
Who puts flowers on his headstone out on Cemetery Road
(repeat chorus)
(verse)
I ’ve been out on this tractor since before the morning sun
In about another hour I’ll have this whole field done
Saw the hearse turn off the highway, moving awful slow
Leading one more sad procession down Cemetery Road
(last chorus)
If you’ve got grudges, let ‘em go
If you love somebody, tell ‘em so
If you’ve got burdens, lighten up your load
They won’t survive that one-way trip down Cemetery Road
They won’t survive that one-way trip down Cemetery Road
You won’t survive that one-way trip down Cemetery Road
Copyright, (c), 2024 Kelly Gazzaway
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