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A Crowded Place

from Richer Soil by Derek Nelson

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lyrics

They taught me how to shave in the 55th Illinois
With my colonel’s blade and a rag off some dead boy
Never thought I’d see the day I’d live to see all this
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.

With nothing left to burn, they said our job was done
So I went back to Chicago to try and be someone
The years went quick—just five or six—till that city burned down too
My heart looked like the rubble, but nothing looked like you.

So my hands got back to building what they had been tearing down
And my heart got back to yearning for what it had not yet found
I was lonesome in the ballrooms; I was lucky to have been
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.

Then with grayer hair, at the world’s fair
I was tired, I was old
I went back for the last time
To have my fortune told
The white city was gleaming
Looked like heaven late at night
Full of man’s inventions
ferris wheels, electric lights

But I knew God made something better
When you put your hand in mine.
And Joplin started playing something
we still will sing sometimes.
Never thought I’d see the day I’d live to see all this
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.

Wouldn’t you know, a few years ago, after millions had been through
As we were having dinner, the white city burned down too
You said that was for the best, to clear off this old land
Put the past beneath us and make it new again.

So when the preacher says we’ve made it
through harder times than this
We’ll just recall, that no not all
not all of us did
Their spirits all surround me;
their blade’s still on my chin
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.

credits

from Richer Soil, released October 10, 2019

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Derek Nelson Chicago

“Derek Nelson has been one of Chicago’s finest songwriters for about a decade now … [He] delivers a few lines of shocking honesty and vulnerability and continues to roll on so easily you have to go back and listen again to make sure you heard it right.” - Music Defined ... more

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