The Ballad of Ed Tom Bell

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in “No Country for Old Men” spends a lot of time talking about what’s wrong with the world, and making a lot of sense.

Please note: I’m apolitical. I see a lot wrong with the whole world, not just one country, and the ‘country’ McCarthy referred to in Bell’s monologues was the region he lived in, not a geopolitical entity. I’d hate for anyone to think I had a bone to pick with any particular person, place or thing. But if you read Cormac McCarthy, stuff like this is bound to leak back out eventually.

I intentionally sang it in too low a key to get the sound I wanted.

capo 1 D
rocks and stones aplenty
enough to build a house if you’d a mind
though why you would beyond me
sunsets like the hand of God
clouds to flood the land if they’d a mind
but they never do they never do

a growing sickness creeping through the land
people doing things I cannot understand
I’ll stay just as long as I can
this ain’t no country for an old man

old folks raising grandkids; what happens
when the grandkids have their own?
who’s raising them? where does it end?
sky don’t seem as blue as when
I came out here in 53
might just be me it’s probably me
chorus

what’s lacking can’t be counted
what’s crooked won’t go straight
I’m picking one star
and I’m gonna follow it out the gate and down the road
chorus