[Verse 1]
Dark highways and the country roads
Don't scare you like they did
The woods and winds now welcome you
To the places you once hid
You grew up and you moved away
Across a foreign sea
And what was left was what was kept
Was what you gave to me

[Chorus]
You thought you'd left it all behind
You thought you'd up and gone
But all you did was figure out
How to take the long way home

[Verse 2]
The Southern rain was heavy
Almost heavy as your heart
A cavalcade of strangers came
To tear your world apart
The bells of old St. Mary's
Are now the clang of Charcoal Hill
And you took the old religion from
The woman on the hill
[Chorus]
You thought you'd left it all behind
You thought you'd up and gone
But all you did was figure out
How to take the long way home

[Chorus]
You thought you'd left it all behind
You thought you'd up and gone
But all you did was figure out
How to take the long way home
The long way home