A story about a guy in prison, awaiting execution, who asks his buddy to contact his mama after he, (the buddy) gets out, but asks him to not tell her that he died in prison.
folk
country music
original
traditional
wow
cowboyslim
holymoleyrecords
Story behind the song
It's a story about a guy I met in prison. Marceia Bonin has a co-write on this song because she wouldn't leave me alone about the last chorus. I changed it back to the original, without asking her, but she can't complain, because she really didn't write ANYTHING on the song, and she still has a co-write. (Even the version she "co-wrote" was a suggestion from her, I accepted the suggestion to get her off my case, but I wrote it all, and put her name on it.)
Lyrics
Don't Tell My Mama
The judge denied his last appeal.
His final hour became so real,
We sat one day and talked out in the yard.
With execution in one week,
He found it really hard to speak;
Finally, he stopped and swallowed hard.
Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
I broke a promise
I made years ago.
Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
It may be true,
But she don't need to know.
When I was just a little kid,
Shamed by what my Daddy did,
They locked him up and threw away the key.
I promised Mama there that day,
Her little boy would never stray.
History would not repeat on me.
So tell her that I died out on the road...
On my way to her place,
I was finally coming home...
But Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
I broke a promise
I made years ago.
Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
It may be true,
But she don't need to know.
Well, it's six years since I left that place,
Living down my own disgrace,
Proud about the promise that I've kept.
Though she missed her only son,
She never knew what he had done.
His secret safe, even as she wept.
Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
I broke a promise
I made years ago.
Don't Tell My Mama
That I died in prison.
It may be true,
But she don't need to know.
It may be true,
But she don't need to know.
© 2010 CowboySlim BMI / Marceia Bonin BMI