Borrow the Lyrics Challenge – Texas in My Rear View Mirror

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Borrow the Lyrics Challenge — Mitski

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I was tagged for this challenge by Li, of “Tao Talk”. You can find her awesome blog at the above link. Thanks so much, Li! 🙂

“Borrow the Lyrics Challenge”, created by PJ — I’m Sorry for the Inconvenience.

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Rules:

1. You need to choose a verse from a song and use it in an original poem or story.
2. You must include the name of the song and the singer at the end or beginning.
3. You need to challenge someone else and invent ONE rule they need to follow.
4. You must credit the person who started this challenge and the person who challenged you (see above.)
5. You must include the rules of this challenge.

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1. ONE rule that I’m asking Barbara to follow is:  choose a song about a place you love

Here’s the verse I chose to write about. The song it’s from is posted below. It’s “Texas In My Rear View Mirror”, by Mac Davis.

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I guess happiness was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
But now happiness is Lubbock, Texas
Growing nearer and dearer
And the vision is getting clearer
In my dreams

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My take on this song and lyric:

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I always wanted to travel, to see new things and new places, but felt stuck in my hometown. That’s just how it was up until I got married. My husband joined the U. S. Army, and we got to travel to places all over the world. I finally got my dream of flying in an airplane, seeing other countries, having new experiences. It was great fun living in Japan and Germany, and many stateside towns and cities. We moved a lot.

The thing is though, I’d get homesick for my extended family and wish I was back home here in Lubbock TX a lot of the time. There would be years in between seeing them. This was way before computers and facetime, and smart phones. We had to write actual letters to each other, and it might take weeks to hear from them. Calling home was way too expensive at that long distance.

So for awhile, I thought my hometown in the rear view mirror was great.

But I’ll tell you, coming home after being away for so long, seeing the skyline from the road or from the air, seeing my family waiting and waving for me, well, there’s just nothing else like the feeling you get … I’m home.

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~note~ Mac Davis is originally from Lubbock TX, and we even have a street named after him – Mac Davis Lane~

There are a lot of actual scenes of the city in the video.

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“Texas in My Rear View Mirror,” is by Mac Davis, and is on his 1980 album of the same name.

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I was just fifteen and outta control
Lost to James Dean and rock and roll
I knew down deep in my country soul
That I had to get away

Hollywood was a lady in red
Who danced in my dreams
As I tossed in bed
I knew I’d wind up
In jail or dead
If I had to stay

I thought happiness
Was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
My momma kept calling me home
But I just did not want to hear her
And the vision was getting clearer
In my dreams

So I laid out one night in June
Stoned on the glow of the Texas moon
Humming an old Buddy Holly tune
Called Peggy Sue

With my favorite jeans
And a cheap guitar

I ran off chasing a distant star
If Buddy Holly could make it that far
I figured I could too

And I thought happiness
Was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
My momma kept calling me home
But I just did not want to hear her
And the vision was getting clearer
In my dreams

But the Hollywood moon didn’t
Smile the same old smile
That I’d grown up with
The lady in red
Just wanted my last dime

And I cried myself to sleep at night
Too dumb to run, too scared to fight
And too proud to admit it at the time

So I got me some gigs on Saturday nights
Not much more than orchestrated fights
I’d come home drunk and I’d try to write
But the words came out wrong

Hell bent and bound for a wasted youth
Too much gin and not enough vermouth
And no one to teach me
How to seek the truth
Before I put it into song

I still thought happiness
Was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
My momma kept calling me home
But I just could not, would not hear her
And the vision was getting clearer
In my dreams

Well, I thank God each and every day
For giving me the music and words to say
I’d-a never made it any other way
He was my only friend

Now I sleep a little better at night
When I look in the mirror
In the morning light
The man I see was both wrong and right
He’s going home again

I guess happiness was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
But now happiness is Lubbock, Texas
Growing nearer and dearer
And the vision is getting clearer
In my dreams

And I think I finally know
Just what it means
And when I die you can bury me
In Lubbock, Texas, in my jeans

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Now I will pass this tag challenge on to … J Dub

Hope you enjoy the challenge, as I know you love all kinds of music, writing, and challenges. 🙂

The ONE EXTRA RULE I challenge Jill to is: choose a song with numbers in it

Have fun! 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2019 BS