DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE FREE SHEET MUSIC FOR PERSONAL USE. THIS SONG IS COPYRIGHTED. IT CANNOT BE REVISED, COPIED, SOLD OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTED, OR PERFORMED FOR PAY, WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER, DAVID A. WOODBURY (CONTACT).
During a live concert immortalized in a recording, Paul Stookey of Peter Paul and Mary introduced the song, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” by pointing out that the lyrics ask nine questions. (The song doesn’t answer them. The answers can be found in the wind.)
“Dead-end Road” asks eleven questions. The answers can probably be found floatin’ in a sewer. To hear the tune (MP3) or download the free sheet music (PDF), see below. Both files were created using the free version of NoteFlight. I used NoteFlight for the music of another song, “Always Loving You,” which is included in the novel, Cold Morning Shadow.
Intro: C-C-C/G7-C
- Dead-end Road
- 1.
- Was the letter-bomb for me,
- or the poisoned cup of tea?
- Was the bullet through my car
- going just a bit too far?
- Was it anything I said
- that made you want me dead?
- Well, there’s nothing you can say or do
- that will change the way I feel about you.
- Chorus
- That’s why I named a dead-end road after you
- and a holiday on May thirty-two,
- Then I carved your name in the sole of my shoe,
- so I never could forget you.
- I wrote your name in the sky with a plane
- and on a sidewalk with colored chalk in the rain,
- Then I signed it in soap on my cracked window-pane,
- so your name won’t fade away.
- 2.
- Did I ever make you cry?
- Stick a pencil in your eye?
- Did I once insult your mom?
- Make you grovel for a crumb?
- Did I steal what’s in your purse?
- Did you ever hear me curse?
- Then I can’t surmise what I did wrong.
- Won’t you call me and tell me when you hear my song?
- Chorus
- Because I carved your name in the stump of a tree
- and on a hunk of maple sugar candy,
- Called it in on a program on late-night Tee-Vee,
- so your name will last forever.
- Then I wrote your name in fudge on a cake
- and on a leaky boat that I sank in lake,
- And I signed it in sand on a beach with a rake,
- so your name will linger on.
- 3.
- From the hints I’ve lately had
- I can see you’re pretty mad.
- Is it because I won’t bow down
- and kiss your footprints on the ground?
- Then behold these things I’ve done,
- all my memorials to you, Hon.
- Maybe these great things will help you see
- what a misconception you’ve had about me.
- Chorus
- Yes, I named a dead-end road after you
- and a holiday on May thirty-two,
- Then I carved your name in the sole of my shoe,
- so I’ll always have you near me.
- I wrote your name in the sky with a plane
- and on a sidewalk with colored chalk in the rain,
- Then I signed it in soap on my cracked windowpane,
- so your name will linger on.
- Fade (Chorus)
- I wrote your name in fudge on a cake
- and on a leaky boat that I sank in the lake…
©1992, 2021 by David A. Woodbury
The downloadable sheet music prints readily on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
Who is this song for? Nobody I know, really. I was driving home from Farmington one day and passed a turn-off onto a side road that was labeled merely DEAD END. That road needs a name, I thought. But whose name would you want to put on a dead-end road? As I drove onward I conjured that person, and the song easily wrote itself.
DamnYankee.com 