Green Green Grass of Home

"Green Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and Bobby Bare in 1965. It was sung later by Tom Jones in 1966 when it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 1 December staying there for a total of seven weeks.


Overview

A man returns to his childhood home; it seems that this is his first visit home since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. All is welcome and peace; all come to meet him with "arms reaching, smiling sweetly." With Mary the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that I used to play on." It is "good to touch the green, green grass of home." Yet the music and the words are full of foreshadowing, strongly suggestive of mourning.

Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech as he awakens in prison: "Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me. And I realize that I was only dreaming." He is, indeed, on death row. As the singing resumes, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution ("there's a guard, and there's a sad old padre...on and on [or "arm in arm"] we'll walk at daybreak"), and he will return home only to be buried: "Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."

Norwegian singer Tor Endresen has released a version in which he changes "a guard and...a sad old padre" to "a garden and a sad old partridge."

The Joan Baez version ends: "Yes, we'll all be together in the shade of the old oak tree / When we meet beneath the green, green grass of home."

Source: wikipedia








"Green Green Grass Of Home"



The old home town looks the same
as I step down from the train,
and there to meet me is my Mama and Papa.

Down the road I look and there runs Mary
hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.


Yes, they'll all come to meet me,
arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.


The old house is still standing
tho' the paint is cracked and dry,
and there's that old oak tree I used to play on.


Down the lane I walk with my sweet Mary,
hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.


Yes, they'll all come to meet me,
 arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.


(spoken)

Then I awake and look around me,
at four grey wall surround me
and I realize that I was only dreaming.


For there's a guard and there's a sad old padre -
arm in arm we'll walk at daybreak.
Again I touch the green, green grass of home.


Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree
as they lay me neath the green, green grass of home.