♫ Green Green Grass Of Home ♫

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After nearly three weeks of being under the weather, I’m trying very hard this week to get back in the saddle, back to my routine postings, including the morning music post.  But, since I’m still a bit weak and shaky, I may have to take a shortcut or two.  So … shhhhhh 🤫 … don’t tell anyone, but I stole this one from David’s Saturday music post!  It was at the top of the list and … well who doesn’t love Tom Jones?  Oh, and if you haven’t already, be sure to visit David’s music post where he offers much, much more!

Tom Jones decided to record this after hearing a version by Jerry Lee Lewis, a legendary rocker who had started making country records. A year after Johnny Darrell’s original version, Lewis recorded this on his album Country Songs For City Folks.

Jones recalled to The Mail On Sunday February 6, 2011:

“I used to collect anything Jerry Lee Lewis recorded, and still do. I was in New York in 1965 when I bought his country album Country Songs For City Folks. Green Green Grass Of Home stuck out.

I got on well with Jerry Lee. I did have a bit of a dust-up with him one night in Vegas, but most of the time, we got on great. He came over to do a British tour in 1966 and I had just recorded the song. He told me he’d love to hear it, so I played it to him in his hotel room. He was knocked out with it and said: ‘You’ve done something different here, the arrangement is great. It sounds like a No 1 to me.’ I said: ‘I hope you’re right.’ He was.”

Jones also discussed the song’s content in that interview …

“I think the lyrical content is important here. The guy in the song is really in a jail cell, but you don’t know until the end. That got to me. Good God, it paints a picture and yet a lot of people who love Green Green Grass Of Home don’t even realise that. This is about a man who is going to be hanged and he’s just reminiscing on the precious parts of his life.

It made me think of Wales when I recorded it – ‘the old home town looks the same’. When I went back to Pontypridd in those days, getting off the train from London, those words would ring true. It seems like a lot of people relate the sentiment to their home too.”

This song, released in 1965, hit #1 in the UK, #5 in Canada, and #11 in the U.S.  Sorry, Michael, I don’t believe it charted in Germany.  And now, thank you David for allowing me, although unknowingly, to ‘borrow’ a bit of your work!

Green Green Grass of Home
Tom Jones

The old hometown 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
Though the paint is cracked and dry
And there’s that old oak tree that 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

Then I awake and look around me
At four grey walls that surround me
And I realize, yes, I was only dreaming
For there’s a guard and there’s a sad, old padre
On and on, we’ll walk at daybreak
Again, I’ll 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

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Curly Putman

Green Green Grass of Home lyrics © Tree International, Tree Publishing Co. Inc.

22 thoughts on “♫ Green Green Grass Of Home ♫”

  1. Hope you get better soon Jill and you’re back in the saddle! What a song. Reminds me when I was a kid. Mam and dad playing it on the record player. Weirdly, Tom Jones was playing at the sport stadium last night next to where I live. The sound was brilliant!

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    • Thanks, Vinny … seeing doc tomorrow … hopefully something simple, but after 3 weeks I’m so tired of it. I’m so glad you liked this song, and I’m amazed at the coincidence that TJ was playing right next to your house!!! Heck, you’ve got free ringside seats!

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  3. Hello Jill. I hope you continue to get better and feel stronger soon. Thank you, and David, for this version. It has a lot more range than the Johnny Cash monotone version I grew up on. Best wishes. Hugs

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    • Thank you, Scottie! I’m trying … I guess as you get older, it gets harder to bounce back! I’m glad you enjoyed the song! Yes, I’ve heard the Johnny Cash version and didn’t care for it one bit. Hugs

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  6. That’s a true evergreen…. and I’m so sorry to read that you are poorly. Get better quickly, pretty please?! We need your sharp tongue and oscillating brain to be kept on our toes – even as far away as any place in Europe!!!
    Get well, yeah?! Not the fearful Covid, is it?
    Hugs from afar. K

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    • For you, dear Kiki, I shall make every effort to get better very quickly! I love that you say I have an oscillating brain — that PERFECTLY defines it! It goes back and forth from one topic to another in record speed! No, not Covid, for I have been fully vaccinated since June … I think perhaps old age is playing a role here! Hugs to you, my friend!

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