The Simple Truth

    Grazie, John Hartford.

I wish the truth could be simple,
but I think it's mostly true that I don't want to play in Mark Twang.
If I could play like Johnny Gimble,

truth would radiate from my fiddle,
and maybe I could get the hang
of any simple

verb in its past participle--
if only I had had the simple sense to stay out of Mark Twang
in the first place. Johnny Gimble's fiddle

I didn't have, so the band had no use for my wimpy
bowing. Well, who was Mark Twang,
anyway? Not Johnny Gimble,

agreed, but the other Texas Playboys,
including the women's-lib Twang
member Donna--the simple

heart of Johnny Gimble themselves all a-tremble,
all four fiddle strings a-goin' twang
at once--Johnny Gimble
bowed simple!

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