8/04/2016 , , , ,
Rosanne Cash - Etta's Tune
Rosanne Cash - Etta's Tune


Rosanne Cash - Etta's Tune Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The River & the Thread
Released: 2014

Etta's Tune Lyrics


What’s the temperature darling? 100 and more
The horses pawing out the dust, but it’s Wilton by the door
But you pour your strongest coffee and I’ll take back of the wheel
We’ll drive straight down the river road, spread a blanket on the hill

What’s the temperature darling? I don’t stare into the past
There was nothing that we could change or fix, it was never gonna last
Now don’t stare into those photos, don’t memorize my eyes
We’re just a mile or two from Memphis in the rhythm of our minds

[Chorus]
A mile or two from Memphis
And I must go away
I tore up all the highways
Now there’s nothing left to say
A mile or two from Memphis
And I finally made it home

There were days you paced the kitchen, there were nights that felt like jail
When the phone rang in the dead of night you’d always throw my veil
No, you never touched the whiskey and you never took the pills
I travelled for a million miles while you were standing still

What’s the temperature darling as the daylight fades way?
I’ll make one last rehearsal with one foot in the grave
We kept the house on all the corners, we kept the polished bass guitar
We kept the tickets and the wheels of tape to remember who we are

A mile or two from Memphis
And I must go away
I tore up all the highways
There’s nothing left to say
A mile or two from Memphis
And I finally made it home

What’s the temperature darling?

Writer/s: JOHN B LEVENTHAL, ROSANNE CASH
Publisher: DOWNTOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Etta's Tune
  • Rosanne Cash wrote this song with her husband John Leventhal, who also produced and arranged the album The River & the Thread. The song was named for Etta Grant, who was the wife of Johnny Cash's original bass player Marshall Grant, and a lifelong family friend. Etta died on August 7, 2011.

    Rosanne told Radio.com : "He was like a surrogate dad to me, after my dad died. So John and I wrote 'Etta's Tune' shortly after he died. And it was all true [the details in the song's lyrics]. They did keep a house on Nokomis Avenue in Memphis full of their memories. And he did play the bass guitar one last time the day he had an aneurysm."
  • The song starts with the line, "What's the temperature darling?" Rosanne explained to Radio.com: "She (Etta) told me, after Marshall had had the aneurysm, 'We'd wake up every morning of our lives and say, 'What's the temperature darling?'" And I thought, what a practical, solid way to start the day. On all levels, metaphorical and practically. And John said, 'oh my god, that's a great first line for a song.'"
  • This was the first song written for The River & the Thread, and it set the theme for the album. In our interview with Rosanne Cash , she said: "After we wrote that one we said, this is what we're going to do; this is going to be a record about the South, and these people, and these characters, these places, the sense of time travel, the peculiarities of the South."
  • The listener hears Marshall's voice speaking to Etta. Rosanne said: "That line about, 'I traveled for a million miles while you were standing still.' He was on the road for so many years with my dad. You just don't hear about a 65-year marriage surviving the life of a touring musician. And it did."
  • John Paul White of the Civil War accompanies Rosanne on the song, "because we thought he had the sweetness that the song deserved." She added: "But also that kind of…he's powerful, but he's also ephemeral in a way. We thought that was a great combination for that song. I just love the Civil Wars. I've loved them since the first note."