Chords for Merle Haggard performs Mama's Hungry Eyes and Kern River on Prime Time Country

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_ _ _ _ _ From Nashville, Tennessee, welcome to a special edition of Primetime Country, hosted by Bob Eubanks.
Tonight, to help kick off Honky Tonk and Week on TNN, Primetime Country pays tribute to one of the legends of country music.
Join us as we take [A] a musical journey through the life of Merle Haggard.
We still wave old glory down in the cold house _ _ _
Bright lightning still figures through our [D] walls
_ _ _ In the [A] _ snowy Oklahoma, U.S [D].A.
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And now, please welcome the host of Primetime Country, Bob Eubanks.
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Thank you so much.
_ Thank you, Dan.
Welcome to Primetime Country, everybody.
This is a very special evening because I had the pleasure for eight years of traveling with this man.
I produced his concerts from 1973 to 1981.
_ How do you talk about Merle Haggard?
I guess what you say, born in a boxcar, escaped from 17 institutions before he was 21,
spent two years and nine months in San Quentin, lived in every hobo jungle in the country,
and yet in 1970 became the CMA Entertainer of the Year.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to take a musical tour through the life of this man.
Here is Merle Haggard.
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_ Thank you, Bob.
_ Have a seat right there.
_ _ _ Thank you very much. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ How you doing?
Hello, Bob.
[B] You know, [G#m] before we even get started, I've told everybody that what I want to do is take a musical tour through [D] your life.
Could I ask you to grab that guitar right there of yours?
Would you do that [B] for me, Hag? _
Because I can do that.
I want you to _ _ [A] do _ just the bridge, [E] if you would, of Mama's Hungry [B] Eyes,
because as we've said before, we're going [D#] to take just a little musical tour here,
and I just want them to [F] hear the words to [D] just the bridge of Mama's. Let's _ _ see.
_ _ Mama _ never _ had [G] _ the cherry [D] she wanted _ _ _
_ _ _ But it wasn't cause [G] my daddy _ [D] didn't try
I was younger then.
_ Okay, [N]
now, when you wrote the song, Merle, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ you were born in a boxcar.
Why a boxcar?
Well, I wasn't actually born in a boxcar.
I was born in a hospital like everybody else or like people in, I guess, in _ 1937 were born in hospitals,
but my daddy had built a boxcar or built a house out of a boxcar,
and I went home to live and be raised in a boxcar.
_ What kind of a little boy were you?
I mean, you grew up to be an incorrigible later on, but what kind of a little guy?
I did?
Yeah, you did.
_ [C] You darn sure did.
Well, [D] _ _
I was, I guess, a pretty good little boy.
I don't remember getting one really _ _ [G#] bad whipping, _ _ and it was just a spank.
Dad was always pretty [F#] nice to me, and my mother was a_
She was a switch person.
She used one of these little switches.
Oh, [G#] she used a switch?
Yeah.
[B] I want to show everybody.
I found this in your bus just a minute ago, right before it went on the air.
Which camera you want this, guys?
It really doesn't matter to me.
Over [D] here.
I wanted to show you.
This is Merle, [F#m] and let's see if I can find you, Hag.
_ Right there.
_ [B] Right there.
_ _ There you are.
What is this, seventh grade?
I believe it's a sixth grade.
It might be the fifth grade.
I think it's fifth grade, and that little girl's name next to me is Sherry [D] Trogdon.
_ Oh, you remember Sherry, huh? _ _ _ _ _ _
Now, [F#m] so _ what was it like inside [F#] that box?
I mean, you were one of three children.
I mean, did you have a normal family life when you were a little guy?
Probably very much so.
I think I had a very happy life.
I think I [F#m] was nine, and it was exceptionally _ _ secure. _ _
And then _ my dad passed away when I was nine, and I got mad.
Yeah, we were talking earlier.
You have never written any song at all about your father.
_ _ I've started a couple, but I never really could _ _ _ _ _ _ write about him.
I think maybe Mama Tried was probably dedicated, even though it was to Mama.
I think _ some of those Mama songs that I wrote were to both of them.
Were you angry at your father for dying? _ _
_ _ _ I never got angry at him about it.
I got angry because it happened.
I never held it against him. _ _ _
_ _ [B] But it _ made a very angry young man out of me, I guess.
The closest that I think of any song that you've ever written,
because I know your father, you and your father used to go fishing, and you did things together.
You recorded a song one time, or you wrote and recorded a song called Kern River.
And the Kern River played a very important part in your life.
If I recall, _ you even lived next adjacent to it later in [Em] life.
Yeah, I bought a piece of property out there on the Kern River, when [Bm] _ Bonnie and I were married.
_ _ _ Bonnie's still here, you know.
Oh, I know she is.
Will you do me a favor?
Yeah.
Will you go over there and sing Kern River?
_ [A] I'll do my dangest.
[N] _
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Over here. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ For those of you who are not familiar with the Kern River,
the Kern River is the fastest running river in the United States.
It's in Kern County in Bakersfield.
And Merle and his dad used to go fishing at that river, and then later on in life,
he lived [E] next to the Kern River and raised his children there by the Kern [F#] River.
And like so many things that happened with his life, if you listen to his music, you listen to his life.
And ladies and gentlemen, here is Merle Haggard in [A] Kern River.
_ _ _ _ Oh, I'll never swim Kern River again. _
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It was there that I met her.
It was there that I lost [E] my best friend.
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_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [D] Now I live in the mountains, [C#m] I drifted up here with [D] the wind. _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] I may drown in still water, [Em] but I'll [E] never swim Kern River _
[A] again.
_ [E] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ I grew up in an oil town, but [D] my gusher _ never [A] came in.
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The river was a boundary where my darling and I used [E] to swim.
[F#m] One [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] night in the moonlight, [D] the swiftness swept her life [A] away. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Now I live on Lake Shasta, and [Em] Lake [E] Shasta is where [A] I will stay.
[E] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
There's the great San Joaquin, [D] where the beads of the sun go [A] profound. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ There's a place called Mount Whitney from where the mighty Kern River [Em] [E] comes down.
[F#m] _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ Well, [A] now it's not deep and wide, but [D] it's a mean piece of water, [A] my friend. _ _ _ _ _ _
I may cross on the highway, [E] but I'll never swim Kern River [A] again. _ _ _
_ _ _ Oh, [D] I'll never swim Kern River [A] again. _ _
It was there I met her, and it was there that I lost my [E] best friend.
_ [F#m] _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] Now I live [D] in the mountains, [C#m] I drifted up here [D] with the wind. _ _ _ _
_ _ I [A] may wade where it's shallow, [E] but I'll never swim Kern River [A] again.
_ _ Norman Pesquito _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _
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