Sunday Morning Coming Down ~ Kris Kristofferson - Johnny Cash ~ Cover w/ Taylor 518e & Bluesharp

(c)1970 Words & Music Kris Kristofferson
Track 2 on Kris`s album "The Austin Sessions"
Arr. stagwolf
~~~~~~~~~
I woke up sunday morning with no way to hold my head, that didn't hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumble through my closet for my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt
And I washed my face and combed my hair and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
I'd smoked my brain the night before on cigarettes and songs that I've been pickin'
But I lit my first and watched a small kid cussin' at a can that he was kickin´.
Then I crossed the empty street and caught, the sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken
And it took me back to somethin' that I'd lost somehow somewhere along the way.
#On a sunday mornin' sidewalks wishing Lord that I was stoned
'Cos there´s something in a sunday makes a body feel alone.
There ain´t nothin' short of dyin' half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleepin' city sidewalks sunday mornin' comin' down. [2.Harp
In the park I saw a daddy with a laughing little girl who he was swingin'
And I stopped beside a sunday school and listened to the song that they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home and somewhere far away a lonesome bell was ringin'
And it echoed through the canyon like the disappearin´ dreams of yesterday.#
~~~
Bluesharp key of G
~~~
Kris Kristofferson wrote this song while living in a run-down tenement in Nashville when he was working as a janitor for Columbia Records - a strange occupation considering he had a master's degree from Oxford University and risen to the rank of captain in the US Army. But Kristofferson wanted to be a songwriter, so he turned down a professor position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and swept floors at Columbia waiting for his break.
In the military Kristofferson learned to fly planes and he worked as a commercial helicopter pilot in Nashville, and the story of how he got his demo tape of this song to Cash has become legend: He flew his National Guard helicopter to Cash's front yard, where he landed and delivered the tape. The story is often skewed to imply that Cash had never met Kristofferson, but they had known each other since 1965. In a 2008 interview with the San Luis Obispo Tribune, Kristofferson explained: "I knew John before then. I'd been his janitor at the recording studio, and I'd pitched him every song I ever wrote, so he knew who I was. But it was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn't recommend.
To be honest, I don't think he was there. He had a whole story about me getting out of the helicopter with a tape in one hand and a beer in the other.
John had a pretty creative memory but I would never have disputed his version of what happened because he was so responsible for any success I had as a songwriter and performer. He put me on the stage the first time I ever was, during a performance at the Newport Folk Festival."
The original version of this song was recorded by Ray Stevens in 1969. At the 2009 BMI Country Awards, at which Kristofferson was honoured as an icon, he recalled how Stevens took a chance on his tune, when he was still an unknown songwriter: "Nobody had ever put that much money and effort into recording one of my songs," Kristofferson said. "I remember the first time I heard it - he's a wonderful singer - I had to leave the publishing house and I just sat on the steps and wept because it was such a beautiful thing." Stevens added that he was drawn to the song because he felt Kristofferson had a "spark." "He was very talented, very smart and right on time with his style," Stevens recalled. "A lot of people since then have copied those songs that he put out so at this point in time it doesn't seem all that different. It still is of course. There are very few writers who get that spark at the right time."