Let me be a hometown boy
Who'll earn the respect one day
Of the ordinary lot
Of common folk
In the good old U.S.A.,
Where I have sat
And gossiped with
The best and the worst of blokes,
Been to their fairs
And prayed in their church
Share in their ire and in their jokes;
And when I die
Don't bury me
On that lone prairie of song
But in the bosom of a town whose sons have loved me long.