I Hope It Rains At My Funeral

(Tom T. Hall)



I got this idea from a newspaper ad that said: 'Don't let it rain at your

funeral' I think it was an ad trying to get you to hire these people to help

you make out a will. Later in the day I was thinking, 'What if it rains at my

funeral?' I said to myself, 'Well, if it did, you'd be the only one dry, you

know.' So that's why I wrote that song.



A man with forty acres plowed and planted

Can't send no fourteen year old boy to no school

The only thing I learned in the years I worked on my daddy's farm

Was son you better get them crops in when it turns cool.



In the magazines I saw the naked women

I heard about the drinking and the bars

If my daddy could've caught me he'd've killed me

He said, you might run boy but you ain't gonna get far.



I hit town though you might say that it hit me

Next morning there were things I knew more about

The woman who had taken me in said country boy you're alright

The same way I turned her on she turned me out.



The first law I broke right away they got me

I helped 'em build the country roads for awhile

They fed me two times a day and knocked me down about four

For thirty days I didn't even crack a smile.



--- Instrumental ---



Met a nice girl and she said I was her baby

She let me go and would never tell me why

I learned what it means to be somebody's baby

They let you lie in your bed by yourself and cry.



The miles were good but the mileage is turnin' my hair grey

I've met some people that knew me and called me friend

Ain't no sense in wantin' my life to live over

I'd find different ways to make those mistakes again.



So lemme say this I never tried to hurt anybody

Though I guess there's a few that I still couldn't look in the eye

If I've got one wish I hope it rains at my funeral

For once I'd like to be the only one dry...