Dark highways and the country roads Don't scare you like they did The woods and winds, they'll welcome you To the places you once hid () You grew up and you moved away Across a foreign see And what was left was what was kept That's what you gave to me () You thought you left it all behind You thought you'd up and gone When all you did was figure out How to take the long way home () The southern rain was heavy Almost heavy as your heart A cavalcade of strangers came To tear your world apart () The bells of old Saint Mary's And now the cling of charcoal hill And you took the old religion folk I won't be home again You thought you left it all behind You thought you'd up and gone When all you did was figure out How to take the long way home The long way home...