Gordie Came Home From the War

Gordie walked out of the tavern last night
Ran into Robert, started a fight
It seems like that boy
Can't do anything right
Since the day he came back from the War

He's callin' his Katie a whore in the street
Then he's down on his knees
And in tears at her feet
Cryin' you could have at least been discrete
While I was away to the War

And all the blue-haired ladies cluck
When Gordie tears off in his truck
You'd think he'd show
Just a little more pluck
For a boy who'd been to the War

Why if Robert hadna cared for Katie
Left alone with Gordie's baby
She'd have gone completely crazy
While he was away to the War

Sunday morning, Gordie lurches
Past the crowds outside the churches
Throwin' stones at dogs on porches
On his way back to the War

Robert's gone to check on Katie
One tooth missin', left eye shady
He's holding on to Gordie's baby
Like she was the spoils of the War

Gordie stares but he keeps on walkin'
Through with cryin', done with talkin'
Katie's pretty knees start knockin'
Like Gordie's did in the War

Now Robert wants to talk things over
He's chasing Gordie through the clover
He says you know she never was my lover
When you was away to the War

And all the clouds go driftin' by
Like shells exploding in the sky
And now Robert, with his swollen eye
Is wading in to the War

And gazing into Gordie's face
He takes him in a man's embrace
Commits one act of mighty grace
And sends him home from the War...


I've never sung this song the same way twice. It remains fluid, the story changing and shifting with each telling. I still can't say definitively what the relationships are, written against the backdrop of this perfectly familiar town. I don't even know if Robert sends, or brings Gordie home. I only know that's where Gordie winds up.