Go on now and say good bye to our town

So of course I was so high and mighty about how I don't miss Brooklyn, and then all week I've been listening to Iris DeMent singing "Our Town," which David reminded us of just before we moved. He posted a YouTube of Iris and Emmy Lou Harris singing this, and Dave and Lily and I watched it, I think it was that last week just before the moving vans came, and we all sobbed.



(Man, you get into this YouTube thing and you can just click and click and click. This link, above, led me to Iris singing with John Prine, which led me to John and Nancy Griffith. I love this stuff.)

I don't sob now, but I certainly got teary driving back from taking Lily to her week-long masking-making vacation camp at Bement. And Lily came running over just now as I was playing the video (my first blogged video link! and plenty more where that came from) and sang along and cried a bit. She misses Brooklyn a lot.

Anyway, here's the lyrics, from Iris's website. I had no idea she was married to the extraordinary Greg Brown. Another fabulous singing couple (Steve Earle and Allison Moorer):

Our Town
And you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight

Up the street beside that red neon light
that's where I met my baby on one hot summer night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here

But you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight

It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss
I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
it turned over once but then it never went far

And I can see the sun settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight

I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall
I bring them flowers about every day
but I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say

If they could see how the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight

Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly
but I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes
I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go
I love you my town, you'll always live in my soul

But I can see the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I gotta kiss you goodbye but I'll hold to my lover
'cause my heart's 'bout to die
Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on my town, on my town
Goodnight, goodnight