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Help Me Be Good

from Pleasureville by The Potter's Field

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about

Written June, 2008. Never been in prison, but this song still feels autobiographical. I had been thinking about mistakes and how they affect not just us, but those around us. Chorus came out all at once, had to work on the verses. - J

lyrics

He woke up on Sunday and made one last mark on the wall
The last time he lived as a free man, he couldn't recall
Since then it's been nothin' but dodging these big iron doors
Tryin' to stay out of trouble and settlin' scores

They gave him some old clothes and said "don't you ever come back"
The rest of his life and a Bible tucked into a sack
Twenty one years to forget all the things that he'd done
He walked through the front gate his face turned up into the sun... and he said...

Help me to be just a little less angry and misunderstood
I don't wanna waste my whole life sayin'..."you know that I would if I could"
Give me the strength Lord, to do all the things that I should
I guess what I'm sayin'... is help me be good

The day that they took him away she was too young to know
why a man that she wanted to stay said he still had to go
In the years that have past pain and anger have come home to live
in the place of a man who just didn't have nothin' to give

She thought to herself more than once "he can go straight to hell"
Then a voice from the front room said "Momma can I get the bell?"
Twenty one long years of thinkin' 'bout what might have been
She turned to her son and said go let your grandaddy in... and she said...

Help me to be just a little less angry and misunderstood
I don't wanna waste my whole life sayin'..."you know that I would if I could"
Give me the strength Lord, to do all the things that I should
I guess what I'm sayin'... is help me be good

credits

from Pleasureville, released October 31, 2011
Lyrics and Music written by John Natiw/Rocket Boy Records ASCAP

John Natiw - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Rochelle Clark - Vocals
Drew Howard - Pedal Steel
Jason Dennie - Mandolin
Dave Roof - Upright Bass
David Mosher - Fiddle

Recorded at Rocket Boy Records - Canton, MI
Mixed by John Natiw
Mastered by Jim Kissling

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The Potter's Field Ann Arbor, Michigan

"The Potter's Field defies easy description -- Harmoniously haunting, deceptively simple, painting portraits of real life on the canvas of the listeners' hearts and minds with sepia undertones of edgy eeriness, poignant lyrics and bright splashes of toe-tapping energy." ... more

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