Meaner Than the Land That Made Me

Intro

Verse 1 Born on ground that never gave a thing for free Where the rain forgets and the sun don't quit Buried my daddy in the drought of '43 In dirt so hard it barely took the pit This land don't raise you, boy, it files you down Takes the soft and leaves the stone behind Every gentle thing out here gets drowned Or dried to dust — so I made up my mind

Chorus I'm meaner than the land that made me Raised on rock and rust and drought This dirt don't forgive, and neither do I That's the only lesson the West hands out

Verse 2 You think you're hard 'cause you talk a lot of hell Try growin' up where the wells run dry Where a handshake's worth about as much as a smell And a man learns young how to watch a thing die

Chorus I'm meaner than the land that made me Raised on rock and rust and drought This dirt don't forgive, and neither do I That's the only lesson the West hands out

Bridge They'll put me back in this ground someday Same cracked earth that carved me cruel And the land'll just shrug and look away — 'Cause the land was always the harder fool I'm meaner than the land that made me Raised on rock and rust and drought This dirt don't forgive, and neither do I That's the only lesson the West hands out

Outro The land made me. Then it lost the fight.

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