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Patty Griffin - Not a Bad Man

Patty Griffin - Not a Bad Man Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: American Kid
Released: 2013

Not a Bad Man Lyrics

I am Not a Bad Man
I want you to know
I signed up when I was 19
Now 24 years old

There’s ghosts that follow me around
Things I’ve seen and did
But I am not a bad man
Just an American kid

I bet you see a stranger
When you look at me
When I look in the mirror
I know that’s what I see

Got some pills to get my head right
But they don’t work so well
So I drank a little more tonight
And here is where I fell

I bet you see a stranger
When you look at me
When I look in the mirror
I know that’s what I see

I just want a little sleep now
A sleep that’s silent as snow
But I am not a bad man
I just wanted you to know

Writer/s: PATRICIA J. GRIFFIN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Not a Bad Man

The American Kid album deals with death in a number of ways. This song tells the story of a young soldier who is sent to fight in Iraq. He makes it back to America, but is traumatized by what he saw there.

Griffin explained the song's backstory to The Daily Telegraph: "There was a marine who had returned home from Iraq to Austin, Texas, where I live," she said. "A lot of kids got lured in by the marketing campaign and joined up and they weren't really sure who they were fighting. It was after 9/11 and the Twin Towers had come down and these boys were going to go to fight. For me, that was a very terrifying time to be in America and to be an American. Lots of our soldiers came home really damaged after they realised they were harming people they didn't know."

"I read a story in a paper about a family who were trying to get a young family member out of the military and get him some mental health care. That didn't prove possible and he ended up dead and it wasn't clear whether it was a suicide. So I wrote the song to get inside that kid, if I could."

This song is one of the most powerful songs that she has written against war, telling the story of a soldier who becomes the product of a war far more contemporary than the one her father had fought in: World War II.

The title says something about who the man was and who many soldiers of later times represent. They are not bad men, but are being forced to fight unjust wars, often because they signed up without understanding the consequences.

Patty Griffin - Long Ride Home

Patty Griffin - Long Ride Home Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: 1000 Kisses
Released: 2002

Long Ride Home Lyrics

Long black limousine
Shiniest car I've ever seen
The back seat is nice and clean
She rides as quiet as a dream
Someone dug a hole six long feet in the ground
I said goodbye to you and I threw my roses down
Ain't nothing left at all in the end of being proud
With me riding in a race car, and you flying through the clouds

I've had some time to think about you
And watch the sun sink like a stone
I've had some time to think about you
On the Long Ride Home

One day I took your tiny hand
Put your finger in the wedding band
Your daddy gave a piece of land
We laid ourselves the best of plans
Forty years go by with someone laying in your bed
Forty years of things you wish you'd never said
How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead
I wonder as I stare up at the sky turning red

I've had some time to think about you
And watch the sun sink like a stone
I've had some time to think about you
On the long ride home

Headlights staring at the driveway
The house is dark as it can be
I go inside and all is silent
It seems as empty as the inside of me

I've had some time to think about you
And watch the sun sink like a stone
I've had some time to think about you
On the long, on the long
Oh the long, on the long
On the long ride home

Writer/s:
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Long Ride Home

Patty Griffin wrote this emotional song, which has become a big hit among her fans. It is very sad and ignites a great amount of emotion in the listener. The song is written from the view of someone who has just left a funeral, and throughout the song, discusses the long ride home that they have to take after having to bury their spouse of 40 years.

Throughout the song, it is never made clear if it is the man or woman singing the words. It sort of hints that it is from the man's perspective, but the ambiguousness of the song is also what makes it up for the listener's interpretation. The line "One day I took your tiny hand" also seems to make sense only from a man.

This appeared on Griffin's third album 1000 Kisses, which was released on Dave Matthews' record label. It was her first album to chart, reaching #101 in the US and earning Griffin accolades for her vocal range and songwriting skills.

"I bought a guitar in Nashville in 1995, was sitting in my former manager's kitchen and it came right out of my guitar," Griffin told Nu Country TV when referring to this song.

This song was the musical focus of the 2005 film Elizabethtown, which was directed by Cameron Crowe. In the film, the song is used to describe the return of the main character from Los Angeles to Kentucky. Crowe found the song from Dave Marsh, his friend who was a music writer for Rolling Stone and a big fan of Griffin's.

The Irish folk singer Maura O'Connell recorded this song on her 2006 album Walls and Windows.

1000 Kisses features a variety of themes, but it does seem to concentrate on the stories of particular people and comes from a specific point of view. It features a song called "Chief," which she wrote about a Native American chief, and a popular cover of Bruce Springsteen's song "Stolen Car," originally featured on his album The River.