Song Description

In this letter to his former lover now out on the West Coast, the singer laments at their having split up, and the harmony, melody, and images render the beauty that still remain with him, in Arkansas.

Lyrics

Y City to Elaine
Even by the back roads took me not a day
Not a day that I remember when you were here anyway
But it all seems so far to me now

When the cold nights just get colder
And everybody but you seems so much older than me
Well we both know these

Are the pains of Arkansas
Where Iâ??ll die again, when the summer burns to fall
And so I pretend, that you still want to hear me calling you back again
To the pains of Arkansas

Drove it into Little Rock
Thinking there and back about that morning talk
Of trading up, and how you say you made it clear what you were thinking of
I guess Iâ??d never trade in anything

Does the West Coast make you hungry?
Like a full day that starts at dawn and never goes away
Like I swore youâ??d stay

Through the pains of Arkansas
Where they mark my time, counting days that youâ??ve been gone
And I know Iâ??ll be fine, if I can just work the thought of you from their minds
To the pains of Arkansas
To the pains of Arkansas

The rivers flood me to sleep
Ozark shadows cut too deep

Theyâ??re the pains of Arkansas . . .