The Forty Shades of Green

Words and Music: Johnny Cash

Some people assume that this is an Irish song. Well it is I guess though it just happens to have been written by the great Johnny Cash on his first visit to Ireland back in the late fifties. He came back on many occasions over the years and was always a popular artist in Ireland. It is a regret of mine that I never saw him perform.

I close my eyes and picture
The emerald of the sea
From the fishing boats at Dingle
To the shores of Donaghadee
I miss the river Shannon
And the boats at Skibbereen
The moor-lands and the meadows
And their forty shades of green

Refrain:
But most of all I miss a girl
In Tipperary town
And most of all I miss her lips
As soft as eiderdown
Again I want to see and do
The things we've done and seen
Where the breeze is sweet as Shalimar
And there's forty shades of green

I'd love to spend an evening
At Dublin's churning surf
I'd like to watch the farmer
Spade the bog and dig the turf
I'd love to watch the thatching
Of the straw the women glean
I'd walk from Cork to Larne
To see those forty shades of green

Refrain