Lyrics

The Mockingbird’s Song (capo 2nd fret in A)

G D
I drive down this road like I’ve done in the past
C G D
Who owns these farms? Will these forests last?
Once prairie and buffalo and the grateful tribes,
Now hungry corporations with a gun barrel pride.
G D
Every scene I see I make right or wrong.
Am Bm C
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the
Dsus4 D G-D-C-Dsus4-D
Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

Every restaurant I enter has some music on.
Like the silence would send us all back out in the dawn.
Most tune it out but I never can.
Like the voice of an angel to a mortal man.
The tempo is right but the message is wrong.
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

This change of scenery is no Valium pill.
The Ghosts are still with me, dragons over that hill.
But there is nothing I have to get done by nine.
I just watch my gas gauge and try to unwind.
I still forget my rights and replay all my wrongs.
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

The campground is pretty. Kid’s squeals in the air.
But I still hear the highway as I sit in my chair.
Coyotes at night are a magical sound.
But the cries of the ancestors fall to the ground.
This story’s not right for such a huge wrong.
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

I pull off the freeway to taste a small town.
But the stores look like plywood and the drive-in’s pulled down.
At the diner the regulars hang up their cups.
But they say “Not much” when I ask “what’s up?”
My question’s not right, but their answer’s not wrong.
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

On a big city belt loop in the middle of the night
Cars dance past and switch lanes. No signal in sight.
Is it chutzpah, death wish or the primal roar,
That pushes them faster than ever before?
The speed limit’s right but their speeding’s not wrong.
I want to learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.

HARP SOLO

The last turnpike stop before I make it back home.
Plastic and logos and the diesel idle drone.
The skyline smiles. It didn’t miss me much.
But I’m ready for my bed and my morning coffee cup.
I can take off these dark glasses of right and wrong.
I can learn how to ride on the wind like a prayer in the Mockingbird’s song, the Mockingbird’s song.


Words and Music by David B. Hakan
© 2022 All Rights Reserved. 4-9-2022