Lyrics Levon Helm – Back To Memphis

If I never saw you
You’d still live in my dreams
Calling out from stages
And music magazines

If I were a painter
You’d be green and gold
Carved out of matches
But broken out of stone

Taken from the fire of your fiddle
Words of unspoken, blinding truth
If I couldn’t see it, I was lost in my youth
But I’m going back to Memphis — after you.

If I could have seen you
With blood on your bones
Poison in your fingers
But music in your soul

You could have been my lover
Taught me everything I know
But now we are your children
Your flowers in the snow

But all you ever wanted was to see the heart of the city, oh
And all you ever got was hand to mouth
So I know you’ll be walking for a long, long time
Cause you’re going back to Memphis — heading South.

Brothers till the night came
And whispered in the pines
Tempting me with secrets
To play a game with time

Now I feel you in the walls
And I know you’re in the air

But all you ever wanted was to be in the heart of the city, oh
And all you ever got was handed out
So I know we’ll be walking for a long, long time
Cause we’re going back to Memphis — heading South
Going back to Memphis — heading South.