Don't Look Back
(words & music by Markus Rill)		  
 
There's a very harsh novel called "Jernigan" by David Gates where the opening of this song came from. The Granddad character in the first verse, though, reminds me of "Sam, The Lion" in Larry McMurtry's "Last Picture Show." I guess that would make the narrator "Sonny". I like how the last verse weaves it all together.
I could always smell the liquor on Granddad's breath
Course I didn't know what it was, just kinda liked the smell
There's a mountain out the window kinda shaped like the fender of Granddaddy's old Ford
Granddad is gone and he ain't comin' back no more

He taught me how to drive and much more in the cab of that old pickup truck
Told me how much he missed Grandma and how Daddy died young in Nam
He said "boy, don't you grow up to get lost in reverie
Or you'll end up a tired old fool, just like me"

He said "the past is gone but it ain't so far away
And memory ain't no safe place to stay
Well, you can't forget but you can run and cover your tracks
And don't look back"

Now there's a song on the radio I can just tell that Judy, she would love it
I can almost hear her sing along in her husky voice
Now I hear she's getting hitched up again and Anna's gonna have a brand new Dad
Well, they're gone, they ain't comin' back

I know the past is gone but it ain't so far away
And memory ain't no safe place to stay
Well, I can't forget but I can run and cover my tracks
And don't look back

So I turn the radio off and screw the lid back on the bottle
I take one last cruise down Main Street in that old Ford
It's getting dark outside and the mountains in my rear view, they fade to black
...