About The Song
“When You Leave That Way You Can Never Go Back” is a song written by Steve Clark and Johnny MacRae. The song—a bittersweet reflection of a condemned inmate’s life, looking back at all the bridges he burned and wished could be repaired—was recorded by several country music artists, including Sam Neely, Bill Anderson and the band Confederate Railroad.
“When You Leave That Way …”, told in first-person narrative, begins with the man remembering some things about his childhood with fondness: his mother, waking to the rooster’s crow and listening to Arthur Godfrey. However, his relationship with his father is very strained; after the two get into a fight one morning, the boy runs away and never returns home, beginning his troublesome life as a drifter.
Later, the man tries to settle down and eventually gets engaged to a young woman; however, on his wedding day, he leaves her standing at the altar. Later, he begins a relationship with a woman who is married; when her husband walks in on them, he shoots and kills him, eventually leading to his death sentence. (Just before the revelation of the latter of these events, within the bridge of the song, he mournfully tells how he wishes he could repair his broken relationships with his parents and hold his young son.)
He burns his final bridge when a clergyman comes into his jail cell to administer the last rites, shortly before he is to be put to death; however, the man tells him to go away.
Video
Lyrics
I remember waking in the morning
To the sound of the rooster’s crow
Mamma cooking in the kitchen
Arthur Godfrey on the radio
Me and Dad were just like strangers
We never did see eye to eye
Came to blows one Sunday morning
So I packed my bags and I said goodbye
CHORUS
When you leave that way you can never go back
A train won’t run on a torn up track
Sometimes I wish I’d never roamed, oh no
‘Cause when you leave that way you can never go home
Then I met a girl in Knoxville
Oh, we set our wedding day
I left her standing at the alter
With a baby on the way
REPEAT CHORUS
Lord I’d love to see my mom and daddy
And what I’d give to hold that boy of mine
I’d get down on my knees and I’d say I’m sorry
If I could only go back one more time
But I killed a man in Houston
When he caught me with his wife
And I told the preacher man to leave me alone
When he came to read my rights
CHORUS
He said son, when you leave this way you can never come back
A soul won’t roll on a torn up track
All through eternity you’ll roam alone
‘Cause when you leave this way you can never come home
All through eternity you’ll roam alone
‘Cause when you leave this way you can never come home