Higher Ground

John Denver Higher Ground Lyrics
1.Higher Ground

Lyrics:John Denver/Joe Henry
Music:John Denver/Lee Holdridge

There are those who can live
With the things they don't believe in
They are giving up their lives
For something that is less than it can be

Some have longed for a home
In a place of inspiration
Some will find the emptiness inside
By giving it all for the things that they believe
They believe

CHORUS:
Maybe it's just a dream in me
Maybe it's just my style
Maybe it's just the freedom that I've found
Given the possibility
Of living up to the dream in me
You know that I'll be reaching for higher ground

I will stand on my own
I will live up to this vision
I will trust in what I feel
And follow my heart until it brings me home
Brings me home

(Chorus)

Keep me through the night
Lead me to the light
Teach me the the magic of wonder
Give me the spirit to fly

(Chorus)

(Repeat Chorus)


2.Homegrown Tomatoes

Lyrics:Guy Clark
Music:Guy Clark

There ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon 'n lettuce 'n home grown tomatoes
Up in the morning, out in the garden
Get you a ripe one, don't pick a hard 'un
Plant 'em in the spring, eat 'em in the summer
All winter without 'em is a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' and the diggin'
Every time I go out and pick me a big 'un

Chorus:
Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What would life be without home grown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes

You can go out to eat an that's for sure
But there's nothin' a home grown tomato won't cure
Put 'em in a salad put 'em in a stew
You can make your own tomato juice
You can eat 'em with eggs, eat 'em with gravy
You can eat 'em with beans, pinto or navy
Put 'em on the side, put 'em in the middle
Home grown tomatoes on a hot cake griddle

Chorus:

If I's to change this life I lead
You could call me Johnny Tomatoe seed
'Cause I know what this country needs
Home grown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetary
Out in the garden would be much better
'Cause I could be pushin' up a home grown tomato

Chorus


3.Whispering Jesse

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

I often have wandered in deep contemplation
It seems that the mind runs wild when you're all alone
The way that it could be
The ways that it should be
Things I'd do differently if I could do them again

I've always loved spring time, the passing of winter
The green of the new leaves and life goin' on
The promise of morning
The long days of summer
Warm nights of loving her beneath the bright stars

I'm just an old cowboy from high Colorado
Too old to ride anymore, too blind to see
I sleep in the city now
Away from my mountains
Away from the cabin we always called home


4.Never A Doubt

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

(Chorus)
There was never a doubt, never a doubt in my mind
We weren't meant to be lonely
Never a doubt, I knew that I'd find you some day
There was never a doubt, after all of those nights all alone
All those desperate mornings
Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind

I suppose there have been times when you felt like a
Room filled with Darkness
Not a window around
There must have been moments you felt
You were truly alone
Then again each of us knows
In a night of unbearable sadness
Still a light can be found
In each morning the promise that someday
Your true love will come

I suppose there are some people
Who never believe in the magic
On the magic of love
They think nothing is precious
And life is just pleasure and pain
Then again each of us knows
When a heart has been broken it's tragic
Oh the magic of love
Even that which is broken with love
Can be mended again

All the things that you fear at the most
They mean nothing
All the sorrow and sadness can just disappear

(Chorus)


5.Deal With the Ladies

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

I like to deal with the ladies
I like to give 'em a hard time
like to make 'em sigh
Like to make 'em cry over me

I like to swing with the good times
I like to have me a real live ball
Doin' what I can like a dirty old man
(Tee Hee)

Like to have 'em just hangin' around
Wondering where I've been
Like to see 'em with their big brown eyes
Just a drinkin' me in

I like to deal with the ladies
I like to hang 'em up on my line
Treat 'em kinda rough
But they never get enough of me
Rat a tat tat tat tat


6.Sing Australia

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

I come to Australia as many people do
To see the old koala, hitch a ride on a kangaroo
To hear somebody call me 'Mate' and call somebody 'Blue'
To hear an Aborigine play a didgeridoo

Some of you came as prisoners two centuries ago
Some of you come as kings and queens your blessing to bestow
Some of you stand all swelled with pride, some with shattered
wings
But all of us come with open hearts to hear Australia sing

In the desert, in the city
In the mountains and in the sea
In the stories and in the people
I can hear Australia sing

Waltzing Matilda, the men of Gallipoli
Clancy of the Overflow and Crocodile Dundee
The myth of all creation, the teaching of Baiame
The legends of the Dreamtime for all eternity

And in this celebration, a brief two hundred years
The cost to build a nation in blood and sweat and tears
And if we stand divided, divided we shall fall
But if we stand together, we shall conquer all

In the desert, in the city
In the mountains and in the sea
In the stories and in the people
I can hear Australia sing

Sing Australia, Sing Australia, Sing Australia, Sing Australia
In the sails on Sydney Harbour
I can hear Australia sing


7.A Country Girl In Paris

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

A country girl in Paris, moonlight on the Seine
Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain
It's such a contradiction, a heart that's filled with pain
A country girl in Paris dreamin' Nashville in the rain

She walks along the boulevard Champs Elysee
Thinks about a country boy three thousand miles away
Pride is such a hard thing, It's such a price to pay
To be all alone in Paris with true love so far away

Up upon Montmartre when she stops to rest awhile
All the artists look at her and they long to paint her smile
For even in her sorrow there's something in her eyes
That makes the young men jealous, makes the old men sigh

They say the loss of innocence is always linked to pain
For once the heart is opened nothing ever is the same
And so the evening lends itself to lovers and romance
The way to heal a broken heart is to give true love
Just one more chance

A country girl in Paris, Moonlight on the Seine
Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain
It's such a contradiction, a heart that's filled with pain
A country girl in Paris dreamin' Nashville in the rain
A country girl in Paris, longing for Nashville in the rain


8.For You

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

Just to look in your eyes again
Just to lay in your arms
Just to be the first one always there for you
Just to live in your laughter
Just to sing in your heart
Just to be every one of your dreams come true

Just to sit by your window
Just to touch in the night
Just to offer a prayer each day for you
Just to long for your kisses
Just to dream of your sighs
Just to know that I'd give my life for you

For you all the rest of my life
For you all the rest of my life
For you alone, only for you

Just to wake up each morning
Just to you by my side
Just to know that you're never really far away
Just a reason for living
Just to say I adore
Just to know that you're here in my heart to stay

For you all the rest of my life
For you all the rest of my life
For you alone, only for you

Just the words of a love song
Just the beat of my heart
Just the pledge of my life, my love for you


9.All this Joy

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

Dedicated to The Hunger Project

All this joy
All this sorrow
All this promise
All this pain

Such is life
Such is being
Such is spirit
Such is love

City of joy
City of sorrow
City of promise
City of pain

Such is life
Such is being
Such is spirit
Such is love

World of joy
World of sorrow
World of promise
World of pain

Such is life
Such is being
Such is spirit
Such is love

All this joy
All this sorrow
All this promise
All this pain

Such is life
Such is being
Such is spirit
Such is love


10.Falling Leaves (The Refugees)

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

Dedicated with great love and respect to Guru Mayi

Thank you for this precious day
These gifts you give to me
My heart so full of love for you
Sings praise for all I see
Oh sing for every mother's love
For every childhood tear
Oh sing for all the stars above
The peace beyond all fear

This is for the refugees
The ones without a home
A boat out on the ocean
A city street alone
Are they not some dear mother's child
Are they not you and I
Are we the ones to bear this shame
And they this sacrifice

Or are they just like falling leaves
Who give themselves away
From dust to dust from seed to shear
And to another day
If I could have one wish on Earth
Of all I can conceive
T'would be to see another Spring
And bless the falling leaves

Thank you for this precious day
These gifts you give to me
My heart so full of love for you
Sings praise for all I see
Oh sing for every mother's love
For every childhood tear
Oh sing for all the starts above
The Peace beyond all fear


11.Bread and Roses

Lyrics:James Oppenheim
Music:John Denver

As we go marching, marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts grey
Are touched with all the radiance
That a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing
Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching
We battle too for men
For they are women's children
And we mother them again
Our lives shall not be sweetened
From birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies
Give us bread, but give us roses

As we go marching, marching
We bring the greater days
For the rising of the women
Means the rising of the race
No more the drudge and idler
Ten that toil where one reposes
But the sharing of life's glories
Bread and Roses, Rread and Roses


12.Alaska and Me

Lyrics:John Denver
Music:John Denver

When I was a child and I lived in the city
I dreamed of Alaska so far away
And I dreamed I was flying over mountains and glaciers
Somehow I knew that I'd live there one day

Well it took me some growin', and a fair bit of schoolin'
And a little bit of trouble to get on the move
And I felt like a loser but I turned out the winner
When I came to Alaska the land that I love

Here's to Alaska, here's to the people
Here's to the wild and here's to the free
Here's to my life in a chosen country
Here's to Alaska and me

I was born in a cabin on little Mulchatna
Raised in hard times but I had a good life
From the first time I flew with my father a singin'
I knew that I'd wind up a bush pilot's wife

We sleep near the sound of a slow running river
And wake up most mornings to a drizzling rain
And we face every day like the first or the last one
With nothin' to lose and Heaven to gain

Here's to Alaska, Here's to the people
Here's to the wild and here's to the free
Here's to my life in a chosen country
Here's to Alaska and me