3 Songs Shel Silverstein Wrote for Loretta Lynn

By the early ’70s, Shel Silverstein was as well known for his whimsical children’s books and illustrations like The Giving Tree and Here The Sidewalk Ends, and other eccentric works as he was for being a master songwriter. In 1962, Johnny Cash recorded Silverstein’s “25 Minutes to Go,” a darker tale following a man counting down his time on death row. Nearly a decade later, Silverstein wrote “A Boy Named Sue” for Cash, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Silverstein was linked with country music and the outlaw movement, co-writing a series of songs with Kris Kristofferson, and penning more for everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Bobby Bare, and more.

He also released his own music, beginning with his 1959 debut Hairy Jazz, and he wrote the music for the soundtrack to the 1970 Western Ned Kelly, starring Mick Jagger, and Old Dogs, released in 1998, a year before his death.

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“Some things you can say through drawings, and some things you need the extensiveness of writing,” said Silverstein in a 1963 interview. “I don’t know if I’m saying different things in the way that is most fitting. I say things through poetry, I say them through song, I say them through drawing.”

During the early part of the ’70s, Silverstein also started writing songs for Loretta Lynn, including “No Place Else to Go,” from her 1973 album “Home” and “No Love Left Inside Me” (We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, 1979,) and these three.

[RELATED: The Story Song The Made Loretta Lynn Cry and One She Barely Performed Live]

“One’s On the Way” (1971)

Written by Shel Silverstein

“One’s On the Way” is a humorous ode to motherhood and how some women can compare their lives to Hollywood starlets like Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch, and Debbie Reynolds—all named in the song. At first, Silverstein didn’t have Lynn in mind for the song when he sent “One’s On the Way” to producer Owen Bradley. Instead, Silverstein was thinking of a singer like Jeannie Seely, who passed on the song, which led Bradley to shelve it and later dig it out of his files when Lynn was looking for a song.

They say to have her hair done, Liz flies all the way to France
And Jackie’s seen in a Discotecque doin’ a brand new dance
And the White House social season should be glitterin’ an’ gay
But here in Topeka, the rain is a fallin’
The faucet is a drippin’ and the kids are a bawlin’
One of them a toddlin’ and one is a crawlin’
And one’s on the way

I’m glad that Raquel Welch just signed a million-dollar pact
And Debbie’s out in Vegas workin’ up a brand new act
While the TV’s showin’ newlyweds, a real fun game to play
But here in Topeka, the screen door’s a bangin’
The coffee’s boilin’ over and the wash needs a hangin’
One wants a cookie and one wants a-changin’
And one’s on the way

On November 15, 1971, the first pressing of “One’s on the Way,” was mistakenly released with the title “Here In Topeka,” a line in the song, before it was corrected. Years after its release, people would still refer to the song as “Here in Topeka.”

By 1972, Lynn already had her six children with husband Oliver Lynn, and “One’s on the Way” read like a song she could have easily written when it was released as the title track of her album. That year, “One’s on the Way” topped the country chart, where it stayed for two weeks, and remains one of Lynn’s most well-known songs.

“Here I Am Again” (1972)

Written by Shel Silverstein

In 1972, Lynn released several albums and used another Silverstein song as her title, “Here I Am Again.” Lynn’s fourth and final album that year, and her 21st, Here I Am Again went to No. 4 on the Country chart, while its title track, recorded at producer Owen Bradley’s Barn studio in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, peaked at No. 3. The song is the story of someone who keeps returning to an on-and-off love.

I told you that I’d never come around again but here I am again here I am again
I said I’d never let you get me down again here I am again here I am
Here I am here we are the story’s gettin’ old
I know I can’t go on to you but worse than bad I can’t let go

I said words I swore I’d never speak but again here I am again here I am again
I thought I could stay strong but I got weak again and here I am again here I am
Here I am, here we are
And oh the nights are cold and I could use a friend so here I am again here I am again

“Hey Loretta” (1973)

Written by Shel Silverstein

Released as the second single from Lynn’s 1973 album Love Is the Foundation, “Hey Loretta” was another Silverstein contribution, produced by Bradley. The song went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Much like her female-empowered anthems like “The Pill, ” “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Rated X,” and “Fist City,” “Hey Loretta” was about another women’s movement—woman’s liberation, honey, is gonna start right now.

Well, a-goodbye tub and clothesline, goodbye pots and pans
I’ma gonna take a Greyhound bus as further as I can
I ain’t a-gonna wash no windows and I ain’t a-gonna scrub no floors
And when you realize I’m gone, I’m a gonna hear you roar

And you’ll say, “Hey Loretta, I love you more than my Irish Setter”
“Hey Loretta, don’t leave me alone”
“Hey Loretta, I swear I’m a gonna treat you better
I’ll buy you brand new overalls if you’ll only come back home”

I work my fingers to the bone and we don’t hardly speak
And all I ever get is just a little kiss about once a week
So you can feed the chickens and you can milk the cow
This a-woman’s liberation, honey, is gonna start right now

Photo: Alice Ochs/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images