The Dreamer lyrics

When I was a young man beginnin' my teens

How well I remember the lickin's I'd get 'cause I'd dream

My work never finished, barely begun

I couldn't get started 'til all of my dreamin' was done

I wouldn't shuck cotton, I wouldn't chop wood

And then Pa would whip me and say that's for bein' no good

But I kept chasin' rainbows, finally I found

The great open range and the hills were my best dreamin' ground

When I left the homeplace, our mother did cry

She begged me to stay there, and not say goodbye

My Pa told my mother, "Your tears are in vain,

Your son is a dreamer and the winds call his name.

So don't try to stop him, let him move on,

'Cause he won't stop his driftin'

'Til all of his dreamin' is gone".

Last night in a campfire, a face I did see

A vision of Mother, she seemed to be callin' to me

For seventeen years now, I've drifted alone

But I want to see Mother, tomorrow I'll start driftin' home

The last hill I've climbed now, and what do I see?

An old run-down shack where the ranch used to be

Then I see a tombstone and then see one more

I've drifted too long from the old ranch house door

There's nothin' more left now but driftin', it seems

But I hope I can dream of the lickin's I'd get

'Cause I'd dream