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Matthew Lyrics

Artist: John Denver
Album: Back Home Again

This song appears on six albums, and was first released on the Back Home Again Album, and has also been released on the Changes Album. Live versions also appears on An Evening With John Denver, The Wildlife Concert, The Best of John Denver Live and The Very Best of John Denver (Double CD) Albums.

Had an uncle named Matthew
He was his fathers only boy
Born just south of Cobly, Kansas
He was his mothers pride and joy

Yes, and joy was just the thing that he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die
Gold is just a windy Kansas wheatfield
And blue is just a Kansas summer sky

And all the stories that he told me
Back when I was just a lad
All the memories that he gave me
All the good times that he had

Growin up a Kansas farmboy
Life was mostly havin fun
Ridin on his Daddys shoulders
Behind a view beneath the sun

Yes, and joy was just the thing that he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die
Gold is just a windy Kansas wheatfield
And blue is just a Kansas summer sky

Well, I guess there were some hard times
And Im told some years were lean
They had a storm in forty-seven
A twister came and stripped them clean

He lost the farm and lost his family
He lost the wheat and lost his home
But he found a family Bible
Faith as solid as a stone

Yes, and joy was just the thing that he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die
Gold is just a windy Kansas wheatfield
And blue is just a Kansas summer sky

So he came to live at our house
And he came to work the land
He came to ease my Daddys burden
And he came to be my friend

So, I wrote this down for Matthew
And its for him the song is sung
Ridin on his Daddys shoulders
Behind a view beneath the sun

Yes, and joy was just the thing that he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die
Gold is just a windy Kansas wheatfield
And blue is just a Kansas summer sky

Yes, and joy was just the thing that he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die
Gold is just a windy Kansas wheatfield
Blue is just a Kansas summer sky

Words and music by John Denver

Comments/Interpretations

by anon on 5/29/2008 2:15am
I thought the lyric went:
"riding on his daddy's shoulders
behind a mule beneath the sun"

I guess an old fashioned way to plow..I have a picture of my grandfather as a young man, plowing this way...

by Antony on 6/26/2008 3:23pm
That's so funny, I thought the lyrics were "behind a mule beneath the sun" too!

by Milton on 6/28/2008 12:10pm
You are right about the mule. The words were behind a MULE beneath the sun! Least ways, that's what I always heard it to be, and certainly makes more sense as "mule".

by Gentledove on 12/5/2008 5:28pm
Surely it's Colby Kansas as well, but I am just a Brit, what do I know?

by Barbara on 12/26/2008 7:33pm
It has always been behind a mule

by Stephanie on 9/22/2009 4:11pm
The lyrics ARE "behind a mule beneath the Sun" and it IS Colby Kansas (that's just a typo)

The song was also written by John's Uncle, not by John himself.

by EAGLE-WOLF on 2/11/2010 5:51pm
You are all right; it IS "MULE", not "view". And it is "COLBY, Kansas", Not "Cobly".
And to Stephanie: This song WAS written BY John and DEDICATED to the memory of his uncle. He has said that every time he introduces this song in concert.

by Silvia on 7/22/2010 5:51pm
In The Wildlife Concert he said :"this song was written by my uncle Dean "

by Kansas Boy on 2/12/2012 5:52pm
In the introduction to this song on "The Wildlife Concert" album, John says, "This song was written about my uncle Dean." This song was written by John as a tribute to Dean, and although some lyrics describe Dean as a person, others evoke feelings and memories inspired by him, while others are entirely fictional. John also apparently forgets to count his father among the twelve children in the Deutschendorf, ten boys and two girls, in this introduction.

by Harald Heidenreich on 6/19/2021 3:07am
Hallo.
John erzählt doch im Vorspann, dass Mattjhew der zweitjüngste Bruder seines Vaters war. Im Song heißt es, dass Mattew der einzige Sohn seines Vaters (Opa von John) war???
Wie ist das zu verstehen.
Danke für eine Info.

Gruß Harald.

harald.hei@t-online.de