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You Can't Go Home Anymore Blues
ESL - February + September 2014, Haifa +
Woodhaven
(CAPO at III)
Em G Am Am G B7 Em
They tore down the house I was born in
In its place they've erected a mall
The street that I lived and I played on
And all of its people now gone
Am Em B7 Em Am Em B7 Em
Some was just usual progress
And some, just the usual war
But whatever the cause
It's the way the world goes
You just cannot go home anymore
Em G Am Am G B7 Em
All the girls that I've loved now departed
My old friends scattered to the 4 winds
I wish that we never had parted
But it all came apart at the seams
Am Em B7 Em Am Em B7 Em
Some of it was just inattention
Some of it youth that got bored
But whatever the cause
Everyone knows
You just cannot go home anymore
INSTRUMENTAL
Em G Am Am G B7 Em
The pubs that I drank in have kicked it
The cinema turned into a church
The park at the point where I smoked my first joint
Is now welcoming golfers galore
Am Em B7 Em Am Em B7 Em
Some of it was just the economy
And some of it - dwindling of men like me
The refuge of whores
Is now telephone stores
There's no point going there anymore
Em G Am Am G B7 Em
But my good friend still waits on the outskirts of town
His green leaves - caressed by the wind
The good old oak tree - he has not let me down
I will sit there and judge how I've sinned
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Am Em B7 Em Am Em B7 Em
Some of it was quite cruel of me
I'd forsaken the world I had known
Left my home, my sweetheart
and my family
To travel the world all alone
INSTRUMENTAL
Am Em B7 Em Am Em B7 Em
There's no way that this wanderlust go from me
Don't know why - I have got it so bad
But my home still lives on
in my memory
I don't care that I cannot - yes I know that I cannot
My heart grieves that I cannot - But I know, yes I know
Yes I know, Yes I know
I do care that I cannot go home anymore
-%- In February of 2014 I went to visit the city I was born
in. Bucharest. I had left as a youth 53 years earlier under less than happy
circumstances. The Communist regime basically took away our citizenship and
kicked us out. Well that regime has joined the rest of the fake Communist
regimes that also failed. I actually, found that the old town has not changed
very much. On the other hand, many other things did. One of them was the house I
was born in. It was gone and in its place and of course occupying the space of
many other houses, there was a huge mall. My parents had moved away from that
place when I was still an infant, so the only memories I had where of a few
visits and some stories that I had been told. The other street that I had lived
on for thirteen years, was gone as well. A huge hospital had taken its place as
well as most of the park that I used to play in with my friends. That was the
original inspiration for this song. I added some other long gone places that I
knew about. It came out pretty good I think, somewhere between a Leonard Cohen
and a traditional gypsy ballad. Considering that the first image that came to my
mind was of Dorothy's house dropping on top of the Wicked Witch of the East and
.the Bucharest mall dropping right on top of that. |
