Winding Down Through Our City

The song ‘Long Black Limousine’ was written by Bobby George and Vern Stovall and was first recorded by Wynn Stewart in 1958.  This song is about living close to the edge and inadvertently dying, where this guy in a small town takes off for the city, with the promise that he will return and surprise the whole town.  However, along the way, he gets mixed up in the city life, which eventually destroys him (the party and the fatal crash).  He does return in a similar fashion to the way he said, but the fancy vehicle he returns in, is a hearse.  He kept his promise, but his return was tragic, returning in a casket, with a line of mourners following the funeral procession.

Elvis Presley made this song famous, as the King took the country-laced original and sculpted it into a haunting R&B number, releasing it on his 15th studio album From Elvis To Memphis in June of 1969.  Many people feel that Elvis was singing this song about himself, whether he knew it or not.  The Grateful Dead also sang this a few times and they were intimately familiar with tragedies and death.

There’s a long line of mourners, winding down through our city
Their fancy cars are such a sight to see
They must be your rich friends that knew you in the city
And now they’ve finally brought you back home to me

The papers told of how you lost your life
Of the party and the fatal crash that night
The race out on the highway and the turn nobody’s seen
Now you’re riding in that long black limousine

You said the day you left me that you would be returning
In a fancy car, for all the town to see
Well now you’ve finally come back, yes you’ve finally got your dream
Now you’re riding in that long black limousine

The papers told of how you lost your life
Of the party and the fatal crash that night
The race out on the highway and the turn nobody’s seen
Now you’re riding in that long black limousine
Now you’re riding in that long black limousine

Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 37 where this week’s theme is winding.