This is the meaning behind the lyrics of the song “Green, Green Grass Of Home” by Tom Jones. Welsh singer Tom Jones, who first rose to fame in the mid-1960s with songs like “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat,” won the Grammy Best Newcomer Award. His 1966 follow-up song “Green, Green Grass Of Home” sold over a million copies and reached number one on the UK charts, holding the position for seven weeks. It was also successful in the United States, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard charts, selling 1.22 million copies.
“Green, Green Grass Of Home” seems to refer to the green valley of Wales, as Tom Jones is known for his Welsh roots. Instead, the song was written by Nashville composer Curly Putman – who also wrote the country classic “Divorce” – and has a very different meaning. Also, Tom Jones is by no means the first artist to record the song. Country singers Johnny Darrell, Porter Wagoner and Bobby Bare all recorded “Green, Green Grass Of Home” before Jones, and it was the version recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis that inspired Jones to record his song. only me. After Jones, artists like Dean Martin, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley also recorded it.
According to Curly Putman, after seeing John Huston’s 1950 film noir, “Green, Green Grass Of Home” was partly inspired by asphalt forest What follows is a group of men attempting an ill-fated robbery. One of the characters is a man named Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden, Godfather) gets involved in a robbery because he wants to get out of town and buy the Kentucky horse ranch he grew up on. By the end of the film, Dix is badly injured and is on the run. In the final scene, he returns to his family’s old farm—an idyllic countryside with rolling hills and picturesque white farmhouses—but he dies of a gunshot wound. .
that is asphalt forest Dix’s descriptions of his childhood home inspired Curly Putman to write lyrics describing the protagonist’s hometown, with its green lawns, old oak trees, and cracked painted houses. Like the movie it inspired, “Green Grass of Hometown” has a sad ending — a lyrical episode, some might say.
While the first few lines of “Green, Green Grass Of Home” sound like they’re describing the protagonist’s return to his hometown, the last sentence suggests the singer is daydreaming that he’s actually waiting. waiting in the cell to execute the death row inmate. The last line of the song, “Yes, they will all come to see me, in the shade of that old oak tree, when they put me “under the grass”“Meaning that the main character is buried in his hometown after being executed.