"Green Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and Bobby Bare in 1965. It was sung later by Tom Jones in 1966 when it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 1 December staying there for a total of seven weeks. (It had been recorded earlier that year by Jerry Lee Lewis, without any great success). The Tom Jones record reached #11 pop, #12 easy listening on the Billboard US charts.
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The song is about a man who has been away from home for a while. He tells that he is returning to his small home town in the country. When he steps down from the train, he touches the green grass. His parents and "sweet Mary" are there to welcome him. He observes tokens of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that used to play on".
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Then comes a spoken section where the singer awakens in prison: "Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me. And I realize that I was only dreaming." The man is, in reality, awaiting his execution, and he will only return home when he is dead and buried: "Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Green_Grass_of_Home
~http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5IABqwVO2U
~http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tomjones/greengreengrassofhome.html
