OLD MAN'S FREEDOM

Words and Music By Dean MacDougall

Sam Says: This song goes back a few years to one of my earlier bands--The Shire Bros. I played bass in those days, and this great song that Dean wrote was drawing some attention at the time. When all was said and done, however, the song simply slipped into near obscurity. When I began contemplating what songs to record on "Wanted Man", I thought I would try to put together a version of this tune. We couldn't remember what chords we used to play, so this is the guitar arrangement that I eventually worked out to go with the melody line which I could more or less remember.

If you could look past the whiskey and the lines that life's creased on his face

If you could look past the years that he's spent roamin' 'round from place to place

There's a voice in that weathered old body cryin' out to be heard

"Don't condemn me for my freedom 'cause I've earned every letter in the word"

And F is for the free road he's rambled

R is for the rebel he's stayed

Double E is for the easy way the whiskey goes down

And D is for the devil he's paid

O is for the old man the mirror now sees

And M is for the man that he's been

Yes it's for the man that he's been

If you could look past those glassy old eyes at the youth that they saw

There was many a fine lady who said stash your old pack in my hall

That he left the next morning with just a kiss kept the promise that he'd made

To keep movin' towards tomorrow and to let go of yesterday

And F is for the free road he's rambled.....