Original Song: The Ballad Of Ervin O Jones

---

The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones  

© 2014 Craig Gleason 

He was born in the summer of, nineteen hundred and twenty four
Raised up west of the river on, thirty eight acres of cotton and corn
The first child of a farmer and his bride was gonna break their heart someday 

And Ervin Jones was his name 

His daddy and his daddy before him, ate by the sweat of their brow
Ervin and his brother Curtis were taught how to hitch a mule to plow 

Workin the fields in the summer sun in the winter they were choppin’ wood 

Ervin learned right from wrong, and bad from good 

It wasn’t often when them two brothers, weren’t together side by side 

Helpin’ their daddy, or huntin’ the hollow it was a picture of American pride 

The years went by and before too long a world war was to blame
The brothers said goodbye, when Ervin’s orders came 

On the 16 of April, nineteen hundred and forty five
The mighty 77th Army landed on Le Shima isle
They fought like banshees in a battle they call “Typhoon of Steel” 

When Ervin set foot on that beach his fate was sealed 

Back home the next day his Daddy was, listenin’ to the radio’s noise 

He heard about the battle that was gonna bury 200 American boys 

He called his family into the kitchen and with tears in his eyes
He said I don’t think he did, but I hope Ervin survived 

Now that very date is written on the tombstone of Ervin Jones
Where he’s laid to rest just a mile up the road from his childhood home 

From the lowlands to the highlands across every stick and stone 

Came heroes who gave and lost their lives, heroes like Ervin O.Jones