Bob Heyer: Music

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I wrote the words for this song on February 9, 1974 and revised it on December 28,1976. This one is for you, Susan.

How Will They Know Me?
by Robert C. Heyer

I'm going back to my hometown
I'm leavin' here today
Oh, how will they know me
Ten years I've been away
I left in the spring of '42
my momma she did cry
but I was young and fancy free
I bid her a hasty goodbye

Chorus
Oh, how will they know me
Hard times can change a man
I've been away for so damn long
Hard times can change a man

Ten years ago I left my home
with fortune and fame in mind
now I'm broke and I'm busted
my head's hangin' low
and I'm bummin' the box car line
I've gambled and drunk my time away
my shoes are fallin' out
I ain't had a meal in many a day
As I go ramblin' about

Repeat chorus

Cincinnati, Baltimore,Chicago and the rest
I've made my way from day to day
as a cowhand out in the West
This life's not been kind to me
my heart's as cold as stone
no friends have I, no sweetheart dear
no family and no home

repeat chorus

I'm heading back to where I was born
now mama don't you cry
my sportin' life has run me down
and I'm coming back home to die