If You Get to Heaven Say Hello to God for Me - Original Song by RHopen

This an original song of mine, and I think it needs a little explanation, especially because of the title which in no way is meant to be sacrilegious.

More of my original songs can be found in this playlist: http://www.youtube.com/user/rhopen#grid/user/5FAFE92B39620456

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, there were some soldiers on the Confederate side that carried on fighting in small guerilla units conducting raids, looting and killing at every opportunity, disregarding any form of law and order. They soon became Outlaws and often formed gangs to carry out bank robberies and acts of revenge against those they felt were deserving of it. The most infamous of these Outlaws was Jesse James, but there were many others, most notably Cole Younger and the Doolin-Dalton gang.

Many of these men were very religious as well, at least outwardly, especially Jesse James, and I have often wondered how they justified their actions to themselves, God, and family. did the cruelties of war just corrupt their natures, or were they simply bad people to begin with? As I was thinking about how they might have answered this question, the title of the song came to me as I imagined their response: "if you get to heaven say hello to God for me, tell him that I am sorry".

So, here is my song about a fictional character from that time that is sort of a composite of Jesse James and others like him.

Instruments Used for this song:
Mexican Mandolina
5-String short-scale Banjo
Elise Concertina
Harmony 4-string guitar

Recorded using Garageband

If You Get to Heaven Say Hello to God for Me
By Ronald Haselden




June 2009, all rights reserved

My name is John McCree
In the 1870s
West of the Mississippi
And ever since the war
Ive been settling some scores
At least as much as can be

I refused to lay it down
Now I ride from town to town
Spreading fear in all directions
Yes my name is John McCree
In the 1870s
And mayhem is my profession

How did I get this way?
Thats the question of the day
Im not sure I know the answer
Maybe too much blood and war
But that will all go down as lore
And I will never concede to capture

So,
If you get to heaven
Say hello to God for me
Tell him that I am sorry
I should have been a good man
But it wasnt meant to be
For lust, revenge, and robbery

Now theres a new song on the plain
And it mentions me by name
It tells of a mans sad story
From his daddys farm he rode
To the a war that killed in droves
But for him there is no glory

So,
If you get to heaven
Say hello to God for me
Tell him that I am sorry
I should have been a good man
But it wasnt meant to be
For lust, revenge, and robbery

Category:

Music

Tags:

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• frontier
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• Original Song by RHopen
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[ForFREEDOM13]

This is cool is this on iTunes I want to download this

[rhopen]

@ForFREEDOM13 Thanks very much. I don't have anything on iTunes yet but I'm working on it. Thanks again.

-Ron

[rhopen]

Hi Marie-Alix.

You are very kind :o) Thank you very much and have a great weekend in France :o)

Merci,

-Ron

[InnocentMalin]

A very thoughtful and beautiful song, my friend, I enjoyed it.!

Thanks for providing the background to the song, it's interesting to read and I appreciate the idea.

Well done Ron!

Keep it up!!!!

Best regards,

~Anindya

[rhopen]

Hi Anindya, thank you very much. Have a great week. -Ron

[RIchardEPfeifer]

Good one!

[ImOfTheWoods]

This is brilliant, Ron! You have a great body of work here on youtube. This one is very unique and I enjoyed it very much. 8o)

[spudheds]

nice voice man, what you need to do is get some contacts, get some more trendy clothing and i think you will do well!

[inlandviews]

Nicely put together, good storytelling.

[DKMaher13]

Excellent original storytelling song Ron.Added this one to the "storytellers" list on The Songwriters Collection Channel...5*s...Kathy

[groberson2007]

Thanks knappydanny for rating my comment. You were not asleep when wisdom came calling.

G R

[knappydanny]

that's a 5* comment right there !

[onewomanandsomesongs]

You're a great musician in every sense of the word. :) Five stars. I love your storytelling lyrics here....just brilliant songwriting.