The Rock Of My Soul Chords by Rodney Crowell

_ In 1955, this was the Emanuel Temple Pentecostal Church.
My mother used to drag me 25 city blocks every Sunday morning to church here.
And there was where Brother Modest and Brother Pemberton were holy rolling, hell of fire
and damnation Pentecostal preachers, and they alternated.
Brother Modest was cool in his kind of Robert Hall suits, and his hair was slick, and he
looked really [G] good, and he had a real Dean Martin, pop singer [N] smoothness to his sermons.
And Brother Pemberton was a Jerry Lee Lewis, hair flying, great balls of fire, rockabilly,
hot sauce, Louisiana hot sauce preacher.
I just loved him.
My mother would drag me here, it would be 95 degrees and 90% humidity on Sunday mornings.
[B] We'd come up Wayside Drive to [A] church here, and my mother just loved it here.
This was a place of solace for my mother.
The rock of my soul went to church on Sunday. _ _
[F#] The rock of my soul went to work on Monday. _ _
[A] Clean across the levee by the railroad tracks. _ _
[F#] The other side of Houston in a two-room shack. _ _
[D] Sweeping out confetti from a third-grade classroom. _ _
[F#] The rock of my soul pushed the dust from my broom. _ _
[A] The rock of my soul didn't have much luck. _ _ _
[F#m] He came to town a-grinnin' on a flatbed truck. _ _ _
[A] The rock of my soul didn't have much charm. _
With [F#m] a lack of education on a red dirt farm. _
And [D] he was fond of disappearing on an eight-day drunk. _ _
[F#m] Coming home smelling like a low-down skunk.
And he said, [G] _ I do like I say, [F#m] and not like I do.
And [G] you might _ make [A] me proud. _ _
_ [G] Another Houston [F#m] kid on a downhill skid [G] for a crowd.
_ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ I'm a first-hand witness to an age-old crime.
_ _ [F#m] A man who hits a woman isn't worth a dime.
_ _ [A] Five, six, seven, eight, nine years old.
_ _ [F#m] That's what I remember about the rock of my soul.
_ _ [D] I told him I would kill him if he did not stop it.
_ _ [F#m] But the rock of my soul just would not drop it.
_ _ _ [G] _ I learned to lie like [F#m] dirt.
I could steal your [G] shirt and _ talk with [A] a gun.
_ _ [G] _ Another Houston [F#m] kid on a downhill skid [G] like,
I'm a fight _ [A] song. _ _ _ _
I _ _ _ _ got out of prison about a year ago.
_ _ _ [F#m] Seven long years really went by slow.
_ _ [A] I didn't kill my daddy, but my mama tried.
_ _ [F#m] She shot him with a pistol and he liked to die.
_ _ [D] I'm on probation living straight and true.
_ _ [F#] And there's every indication that the past is [F#m] through.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
That's all I know [D] about the rock [A] of my soul. _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] I'm a rock of my soul.
_ _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _