Gentle On My Mind is een prachtig nummer van de Amerikaanse singer/songwriter John Hartford (1937-2001) uit 1967, dat vooral bekend is geworden door de versie van Glen Campbell (1936-2017) uit hetzelfde jaar. Hartford schreef het lied na het zien van de film Doctor Zhivago (1965).

Hier wordt het nummer uitstekend gezongen door de Amerikaanse singer/songwriters Madison Cunningham & Andrew Bird tijdens een opname in 2019. Ze zingen de versie van Glenn Campbell & Bobbie Gentry uit 1968.

Gentle On My Mind
It’s knowing that your door
is always open,
and your path is free to walk.
That makes me tend to leave
my sleeping bag rolled up
and stashed behind your couch.
And it’s knowing I’m not shackled
by forgotten words and bonds,
and the ink stains that are dried
upon some line.
That keeps you on the back roads
by the rivers of my memory,
that keeps you ever gentle on my mind.

It’s not clinging
to the rocks and ivy
planted on their columns now
that bind me.
Or something that somebody said,
because they thought
we fit together walking.
It’s just knowing that the world
will not be cursing or forgiving,
when I walk along some railroad track and find.
That you’re moving on the back roads
by the rivers of my memory,
and for hours you’re just gentle on my mind.

Through the wheat fields
and the clothes lines,
and the junkyards,
and the highways come between us.
And some other woman’s cryin’
to her mother,
‘cause she turned and I was gone.
I still might run in silence tears of joy
might stain my face,
and the summer sun
might burn me ’til I’m blind.
But not to where I cannot see you walkin’ on the back roads,
by the rivers flowing
gentle on my mind.

For the shutters creek and autumn winds
that makes me draw inside myself in silence.
Crosslegged now, I sit and watch
the endless chase of leaves across my yard.
And layin’ down my hairbrush
I lean back within my window seat and find.
That your moving on the backroads
by the rivers of my memory,
every smilin’, ever gentle on my mind.

Through the cupped hands ‘round the tin can,
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find.
That you’re waiting from the back roads,
by the rivers of my memories.
Ever smilin’, ever gentle on my mind.