jim reeves
A while ago, I had a look at one of my bookshelves, reaching almost to the roof. On top of it, I've up through the years stored away stuff just standing in the way anywhere else, but worth to keep. How long since I'd been up there? I spotted spiderweb, lumps of unindentified substance and objects supposed to be black now appearing light sepia brown. I grabbed a stepladder to have a closer look, and faced my almost forgotten gallery of relatives. I picked them down one by one to fluff them up a bit. One of them made me burst into tears.
Ingeborg Harriet Holm was one of my many aunties, and a very special one. She suffered from severe juvenile diabetes, was never able to keep a job and spent all her life single and childless, surviving on a minor pension and ... I now realise ... left a lot of that small money with me: the only son of her youngest brother. She's the most self-effacing and kind person I've ever met.
For my twelth birthday she bought me my first record player. For Xmas same year she gave me my first Long Playing album. And so on. She also put me on Earl Grey tea, wholemeal bisquits with blue cheese, solitaire games and we spent more time together than aunts/nephews normally do. I had to sing this song often; she stomped her feet and clapped her hands. And she wasn't musical at all. I never heard her hum or whistle a tune. From her radio came nothing but the news.
After her death in 1972, I forgot all about the song. Now her portrait is down with me in my PC corner, and the song is recalled after all these years.
With all due respect, the song is not a brilliant one. There are thirteen in a dozen of such "happy-go-lucky" songs, many of them brighter. But for two reasons the song belongs to some hall of fame: it's among the few ones Jim Reeves penned himself, and recorded 31th of May 1955, released July same year, it became his first single on RCA (following his country hits "Mexican Joe" and "Bimbo" for the label Abbott) with Chet Atkins as the producer; a cooperation that should last for his next and last nine years to live.
railroad • steamboat • river and canal
yonder comes a sucker and he's got my gal
and she's gone gone gone
and she's gone gone gone
and I'll bid her my last farewell
I fell in love with a pretty little thing
I thought that wedding bells would ring
she was as sweet as sweet could be
'til I found out what she did to me
I asked her mother to let her go
she whispered «mother : please tell him 'no'
though he may think that I am true
there're plenty more who think so too»
now I won't cry my life away
some other sucker will have to pay
and when he finds that she is gone
I guess I'll hear him sing this song
For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.
G Am railroad steamboat river and canal D [D6] D7 G yonder comes a sucker and he's got my gal G and she's gone gone gone G and she's gone gone gone Bm [D6] D7 G and I'll bid her my last farewell G I fell in love with a pretty little thing D D7 G I thought that wedding bells would ring Bm Em ...E7 she was as sweet as sweet could be A7 D7 G 'til I found out what she did to me
