Distance: 2 miles
Somebody improbable - like a young country and western star - was recently asked on Fresh Air about his greatest songwriting influences. Johnny Cash? Charlie Pride? They may have been on his list, but the unexpected name was Shel Silverstein (?!).
Even Terry Gross was surprised.Turns out the interviewee grew up loving Silverstein's children's books like The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, and then he followed Silverstein into song writing. Silverstein's songs include A Boy Named Sue (which won a 1970 Grammy), and he was post-posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
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