Liner Notes

GONE MAN

We were in New York City, Jack Clement, Jan Howard, June and I, and since we were going to the Lone Star Cafe, where we didn't stay long, we took a cab, instead of the bus.

Jack leaned over to the cab driver and said, "The Lord don't know how long your hair is."

The driver said, "What??!!"

Jack said, "He just knows how many you got."

Then old Jack started singing "Gone Girl" to the cab driver, and we all joined in.

We didn't pay him when we got to the Lone Star 'cause we knew we're not staying long and we just had him wait.

We had a table somewhere in the back of the room where they sat us with another couple who had ordered fried potatoes. Jack had some of their fried potatoes and told the girl that she was making a mistake going with that guy. Then w e left.

"You must believe in magic," said Jack to the cab driver.

"I'll never forget this night as long as I live," said the driver.

Now ole Jack sang "Gone Girl" out the window to his fellow Americans in New York City. Nobody applauded, but everyone was interested.

Back in the room we sat up singing. Jack taught me "No Expectations" and Jan sang along, 'cause she had sung the song before.

I sang, "It'll Be Her," and Jack said, "You sing it good but you got a weird way of phrasing."

I sang, "I Will Rock And Roll With You" and Jack said, "That's a hit."

Then Jack sang, "A Bar With No Beer," that Benny Barnes used to sing. He sang it with a weird accent.

June went to bed and went to sleep.

Jack sang "When I Dream." Then he and Jan and I sang "No Expectations" again.

Jan slipped out and went to her room.

I said, "Will you play rhythm for me next week when I record all these songs?"

"Sure," said Jack. "Where's June?"

"She went to bed," I said.

"Sing something fast," said Jack.

I sang my song, "It Comes And Goes."

Jack played rhythm. "That ain't fast," he said.

"Oh," I said, "I thought you meant sing something quick."

"Naw," he said, "I meant sing something fast."

"Don't you like 'It Comes And Goes'?" I asked.

"Yeah, but it ain't fast," he said.

So we sang "No Expectations" again, real fast.

"How did Mick Jagger and Keith Richards write a song like that?" I asked.

"They watch the Carl Tipton show," said Jack.

"They listen to the Grand Ole Opry," said Jack.

"Naw they don't," I said.

"Where's Jan?" asked Jack.

"She went to her room," I said.

"How come?" asked Jack.

"It's two a.m. and she got sleepy," I said.

"I'm going to bed, too," said Jack. "I'll bring my old Gibson to the session next week when you record 'Gone Girl'."

"And 'I Will Rock And Roll With You'," I said.

"And 'No Expectations'," said Jack.

"Is that the Gibson guitar you played on 'Big River' in 1957?" I asked.

"The same one," he said, and he was gone.

But he was at the session "next week" playing rhythm for me. And it felt good'cause we had rehearsed.

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Info

Personnel

• Johnny Cash - Vocals
• Marshall Grant - Bass
• W.S. Holland - Drums
• Bob Wootton - Electric Guitar
• Jimmy Capps, Tommy Allsup - Acoustic Guitar
• Jack Clement - Rhythm Guitar
• Earl Ball - Piano
• Jerry Hensley - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
• Jack Hale, Bob Lewin - Trumpet
• Joel Sonnier - Concertina/Harmonica
• The Carter Family, Jan Howard, The Jordanaires, Rosanne Cash - Background Vocals
• The Shelly Kurland Strings - Strings

Recorded:
1978 Jack Clement Recording Studios/Sound Spectrum Studios, Nashville

Charts

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Info

Gone Girl is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1978 (see 1978 in music). It features The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet song "No Expectations," the original "It Comes and Goes" and Rodney Crowell's "A Song for the Life", as well as a version of Kenny Rogers' famous single "The Gambler", released just a month before Gone Girl. Three singles from the album – "Gone Girl", "I Will Rock and Roll with You" and "It'll Be Her" – were released, but did not reach the country charts' top twenty.

Re-Release Info

This album has not been re-released

***

Lyrics

1.
GONE GIRL
(Jack Clement)
« © '70 Songs Of PolyGram, BMI »

She is deliciously tall sort of a long girl
She is delightfully small sort of a song girl
She freely admits to the world that she was a wrong girl
That's nothing compare to the fact that she is a gone girl
Gone like a knock on the door gone with yesterday and before
Gone with the wind for ever more
[ choir ]
She'd never laid claim to the fact that she was a strong girl
So why should I loudly proclaim that she was a wrong girl
I'd rather think of her name as some sort of song girl
And think poetical things to think of my gone girl
Gone like a knock on the door...
[ choir ]
**********

2.
I WILL ROCK AND ROLL WITH YOU
(Johnny Cash)
« © '78 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »

They used to call me Rockabilly all of us ran through
When Elvis opened up the door with a pup-and-pup-and-boo
I didn't ever play much rock and roll cause I got so much country in my soul
But I'm a different man for lovin' you and I take a shot at what you ask me to
And baby I will rock and roll with you if I have to
[ guitar - choir ]
Memphis 1955 on Union Avenue
Carl and Jerry and Charlie and Roy and Billy Riley too
A new sun risin' on the way we sing and a world of weirdo's waitin' in the wings
But I love you and though I'm past 42 there are still a few things yet I didn't do
And baby I will rock and roll with you if I have to
[ guitar - choir ]
**********

3.
DIPLOMAT
(Roger Bowling - Billy Ed Wheeler)
« © '78 Sony ATV Songs, BMI / Welbeck Music, ASCAP »

He slowly raised the trembling hand
Gently brushed the silver strand of hair from his wrinkled brow
Lips that used to talk so free the eyes that used to beckon me were silent now
He listens to a passin' train gives into an old familiar pain familiar pain
They retired him twenty years ago gave him a watch made of gold and took his train
His woman's name was Margaret
He loved her but she went away and left his heart undone
He called this train the Diplomat she's the only other lady that he ever loved
Some forty years he made the steam
From Memphis down to New Orleans but now he's off the line
And the closest that he ever gets Margaret or the Diplomat is in his mind
He siad take me to the station the Diplomat is bringing Margaret home
Can't you hear that whistle blowing they both know I've been alone for much too long
Let's not keep 'em waitin' we'll talk about the good times later on
Right now take me to the station the Diplomat is bringing Margaret home

They say he talks crazy when
He sees the passin' train or when he hears Margaret's name
But the only things he ever loved he lost before he loved enough he's not to blame
So who's to say he's right or wrong
Reachin' out and hangin' on to dreams he can't let go
He threw the watch of gold away but keeps tracks of memories where he belongs
He siad take me to the station...
They retired him twenty years ago gave him a watch made of gold
And took daddy's train
**********

4.
NO EXPECTATIONS
(Mick Jagger - Keith Richard)
« © '70 ABKCO Music, BMI »

Come and take me to the airport come and bore me on that plane
Cause I've got no expectations to ever pass this way again

Well once I was a rich man but now I am so poor
Never in my weary life have I felt like this before
Your love is like a diamond and you cast your pearls to swine
And as I see you leavin' me it drags my peace of mind
Come and take me to the airport...
[ ac.guitar - harmonica ]
Your love is like the water it's sparking on the stone
Your love is like the music first it's here and then it's gone
Come and take me to the airport...
Come and take me to the airport...
**********

5.
IT COMES AND GOES
(Johnny Cash)
« © '78 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »

I've been up and down and out and I have been around
And I felt good more times than I felt bad
Lovin' you felt better than I've never known before
Losin' you's worst things that I've had
But it comes and goes it's like a blue wind blows
Yes it goes and comes but now I'm livin' some
And today my high didn't get any lower and my low didn't fall anymore
But sometimes when I drop my guard everybody knows
Cause I can't control my feeling and there ain't much sign of healing
Cause when the pain is there it always shows but it comes and goes
[ piano - guitar ]
In my mind I'm holding you and loving you again
I hear you laugh and the feel you cling to me
Although it's over I'm still holding on a little bit
And there's a lotta pain in the memories
But it comes and goes...
**********

6.
IT'LL BE HER
(Billy Ray Reynolds)
« © '73 Songs Of Universal, BMI / Songs Of PolyGram, BMI »

If anyone ever finds a better way to love it'll be her lovin' me
If anyone ever goes out of their way to show they care it'll be her lovin' me
She's every woman that I've ever known rolled up in one
And if I'm ever loved any more she'll be the one
To get it done the way it should be it'll be her lovin' me
[ strings ]
If ever I'm down and out and need someone to care it'll be her lovin' me
If ever I'm in the cold and I need someone warm to hold it'll be her lovin' me
She's every woman...
She's every woman...
**********

7.
GAMBLER
(Don Schlitz)
« © '78 Cross Keys Publishing, ASCAP »

About twenty years ago on a train bound for nowhere
I met up with a gambler we were both too tired to sleep
So we took turns a starin' through the window at the darkness
Till boredom overtook us and he commenced to speak
He said son I've made the life out of readin' people's faces
And knowin' what their cards were by the way they held their eyes
And if you don't mind my sayin' I would say you're out of aces
And for one taste of your whiskey I would give you some advice
So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow
Then he bummed a cigarette then he bummed the light
And the night got deathly quiet and his face lost all expression
He said if you wanna play the game boy you better learn to play it right
Cause every gambler knows that the secret to survival
Is knowin' what to throw away knowin' what to keep
And every hand's a winner just like every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep
Now you gotta know when to hold 'em know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away know when to run
You don't never count your money while you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin' is done
You gotta know when to hold 'em...

And when he finished speaking he turned back toward the window
Put out his cigarette faded off to sleep
Somewhere in the darkness the gambler he broke even
But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep
You gotta know when to hold 'em...
You gotta know when to hold 'em...
**********

8.
CAJUN BORN
(Joel Sonier - Kermit Goell)
« © '78 Great Foreign Songs, ASCAP / Wall To Wall Music, ASCAP »

Left pretty Jo I was born on the bayoo thirty miles out of LaFaiette
My daddy was a cajun man and he taught me how to plow
I remember mama's breakfast goosh-goosh in the caye
Steams're upon the banje I wish I had me some now
I'm a cajun born I'm a cajun bread and when I die I'll be cajun dead
If I die in Alaska if I die in Ohio my soul will find its way back to the bayou

Went to church every Sunday had a Frensh talkin' preacher man
We kids joked about the preacher man cause we thought he wore a dress
After church we had a party cajun music on the phonograph
Harry Short singing Jole Blon made a singer out of me
I'm a cajun born...
[ acordeon ]
When I get enough to marry get myself a cajun lady
Some sorta like my mama cause I ain't no other no other kind
And wherever fortune takes me with the breaks or makes me
Memory won't forsake me got Louisiana on my mind
I'm a cajun born...
**********

9.
YOU AND ME
(Roger Bowling - Larry Butler)
« © '78 Blackwood Music, BMI / Sony ATV Songs, BMI »

[ duet with June Carter ]

Ain't it good babe you and me
We sailed the stormy waters we calmed the angry seas
We knew we could babe you and me just as long as we had you and me

What more could a man want than a woman there beside him
To hold his hand and understand
That every day is not the same sometimes it's gonna rain
You are my sunshine and I'm your man
Ain't it good babe...

What more could a woman want than a man there beside her
Through the bad times we had good times
You've always been a pillow a shoulder and a friend
And I thank God that you are mine
Ain't it good babe...
Ain't it good babe...
Just as long as we had you and me
**********

10.
SONG FOR THE LIFE
(Rodney Crowell)
« © '76 Tessa Publishing, BMI »

I don't drink the way that I used to lately that just ain't my style
And the hard times don't hurt like they once did
They pass more quickly like when I was wild
And somehow I've learned how to listen to a sound like the sun going down
In the magic the morning is bringing
There's a song for the life I have found it keeps my feet on the ground

The mid summer days ain't too heavy they just flow like a breeze through my mind
And nothing appears in a hurry to make up for some old lost times
And somehow I've learned...
Somehow I've learned...
**********

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