Goin Back To Memphis Lyrics - Live At The Palladium In New York City New Years - Levon Helm

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 

And it's just like I can touch you 

You're living everywhere 

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.