The service went the way it should have gone
No one talked too loud or cried too long
'Cept your mama's new boyfriend
He went on and on while they laid you in the ground
Right about then a truck backfired
And all the boys they flinched their heads
Yeah that shook me up I guess
I been home a month now and I still can't get no rest
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
With nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did
21 guns for 21 years and American flags in the wind
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
Barbecue grills and lawnmowers
Kids on four-wheelers and ice cream trucks
Yeah they buried you on a Saturday
Georgia lost to Tennessee, you would have liked that I know
Afterwards we went to O'Charleys
Your mama's boyfriend got drunk saying it should have been me
And I wish it was, him I mean
So I went home, got drunk and watched the TV
I'm standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
With nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did
21 guns for 21 years and American flags in the wind
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
Hey, there's only one road leads out of this town and it comes right back
So I just drive in circles, circles, and I try not to blow my stack
Out at the mall and the motor mile, it's just as lonesome as a sea
And man the girls round here, the girls round here
They're just as hopeless as they used to be
So go on and tie another yellow ribbon round the old hackberry tree
And tamp the dirt down, y'all go on home now, there ain't nothing here to see
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
With nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did
21 guns for 21 years and American flags in the wind
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend
I'm just standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend