Sunday Mornin' Coming Down

This is one of my favorite songs. Sometimes when I hear it, it makes me cry, other times it makes me smile, and it always reminds me of my dad. Every time my dad had a Sunday off when I was growing up, which I guess was about once a month or so, he would play this song while we had breakfast. He also sometimes played it more than once, which he tends to do with songs he really likes. So basically I heard this on a regular bases for the first 19 years of my life and for the last 6 intermittently I will listen to it on my computer or hear it when I go home. Ironically those Sunday mornings having breakfast with my family are some of my happiest memories but this song, while great, is really very sad.

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down

By Kris Kristofferson

-

Well I woke up Sunday morning

With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad

So I had one more for desert

-

Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes

And found my cleanest dirty shirt

Then I shaved my face and combed my hair

And stumbled down the stair to meet the day

-

I'd smoke my brain the night before

On cigarettes and songs that I've been picking

But I lit my first and watched a small kid

Cussin' at a can that he was kicking

-

Then I crossed the empty street

And caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken

And it took me back to something

That I'd lost somehow somewhere along the way

-

On the Sunday morning sidewalk

Wishing Lord that I was stoned

Cause there's something in a Sunday

Makes a body feel alone

And there's nothing short of dying

Half as lonesome as the sound

On the sleepin' city sidewalk

Sunday morning coming down

-

In the park I saw a daddy

With the laughing little girl who he was swinging

And I stopped beside a Sunday school

And listened to the song that they were singing

-

Then I headed back for home

And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing

And it echoed through the canyons

Like a disappearing dream of yesterday

-

On the Sunday morning sidewalk
Wishing Lord that I was stoned
Cause there's something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
And there's nothing short of dying
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleepin' city sidewalk
Sunday morning coming down...

-

If you have never heard it, go find and listen to it. It is truly great country. Be sure though to listen to the Kris Kristofferson version. Strangely, while he wrote it in 1969, it was realised by three different singers around that time. The original version is actually sung by Ray Stevens in 1969, I don't like it because his voice is too sweet and happy, there isn't the same emotion in it. Then in 1970, Johnny Cash did a cover of it which I'm also not a fan of, as it has a very Cash-like beat in the background that is too strong for my liking. The true version, sung by the writer, and appeard on Kris Kristofferson's first album, Kristofferson, also in 1970. This song, and many of the others on the album were already hits when covered by other artists. In spite of this the album was a commercial failure. It was re-released under the title Me & Bobby McGee in 1971, after the success of Janis Joplin's cover of his song 'Me & Bobby McGee' and the success of Kris Kristofferson's second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I. It became a hit upon re-release and 'Sunday Mornin' Coming Down' has always been one of the songs that he is known for.