In Color

Album: That Lonesome Song (2008)
Charted: 52
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  • I said grandpa what's this picture here
    It's all black and white
    It ain't real clear is that you there?
    He said yeah, I was eleven

    Times were tough back in '35
    That's me and uncle Joe just tryin' to survive
    A cotton farm, in a great depression

    If it looks like we were scared to death
    Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
    You should've seen it in color

    Oh and this one here was taken over seas
    In the middle of hell in 1943
    In the winter time, you can almost see my breath

    That was my tail gunner ole Johnny Magee
    He was a high school teacher from New Orleans
    And he had my back right through the day we left

    If it looks like we were scared to death
    Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
    You should've seen it in color

    A pictures worth a thousand words
    But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
    You should've seen it in color

    This one is my favorite one
    This is me and grandma in the summer sun
    All dressed up the day we said our vows
    You can't tell it here but it was hot that June
    And that rose was red and her eyes were blue
    And just look at that smile I was so proud
    That's the story of my life right there in black and white

    And if it looks like we were scared to death
    Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
    You should've seen it in color

    A pictures worth a thousand words
    But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
    You should have seen it in color

    You should have seen it in color

    Yeah a pictures worth a thousand words
    But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
    You should have seen it in color Writer/s: James Otto, Jamey Johnson, Lee Thomas Miller
    Publisher: DO WRITE MUSIC LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 3

  • Paul C from North CarolinaThat's not just the perfect country song... That is the perfect song in any genre. How can you listen to those lyrics and not be stopped dead in your tracks? It makes me think of John Prine's Sam Stone or Anna Nalick's Just Breathe. Lyrics like that will live for many, many years.
  • Camille from Toronto, OhThis is the perfect country song. The lyrics, and how it's sung, by Jamey Johnson are incredible. The words capture a time that will never return: so many magical, life-changing moments in life captured in black and white photographs. Jamey Johnson told a story that is vividly pictured in the mind of the listener every time. This song has to be one of the all-time best country songs every written and sung, right up there with "Coal Miner's Daughter".
  • Nick from Edgewood, WaI have the same thoughts and memories of my grandpa. Thanks for putting it to words.
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