Sweet Sunny South (Take Me Back) *



Take me back to the place where I first saw the light
To the sweet sunny south take me home
Where the mockingbird sang me to sleep in the night
Oh, why was I tempted to roam?

  Well, I think with regret of the dear home I left
  Of the warm hearts that sheltered me then
  Of the loved ones and family of whom I'm bereft
  And I sigh for the old place again


Take me back to the place where the orange trees grow
To my cot in the evergreen shade
Where the flowers on the river's green margin did grow
And spread their sweet scents through the glade

  Oh, the path to our cottage they say has grown green
  And the place is quite lonely around
  And I know that the faces and forms I have seen
  Now lie deep in the cold mossy ground


Take me back to the place where my little ones sleep
And my parents are buried close by
O'er the graves of my loved ones I long for to weep
And among them to rest when I die

  Oh, and yet I'll return to the home of my birth
  Where my children have played 'round the door
  Where they plucked the wild flowers that bloomed from the earth
  That will echo their footsteps no more


Take me back, let me see what is left that I knew
Can it be that the old house is gone?
Oh, the friends of my childhood indeed must be few
And I must be left all alone

  Take me back to the place where I first saw the light
  To the sweet sunny south take me home
  Where the mockingbird sang me to sleep in the night
  Oh, why was I tempted to roam?
  Oh, why was I tempted to roam?

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*  I wrote this out from memory, not from any particular version.
   I originally got my version from the "official" lyric in the
   book "Heart Songs", but modified it to modernize it, gender-
   neutralize it, and/or make it more politically correct.
   Since then, I've probably forgotten or garbled it some.

   When I perform this, I sing the verses in pairs, with solos
   between pairs of verses.  For that reason, I repeat the first
   verse at the end, so it'll come out even.  (Also, that warns
   people that the end is coming.)