To Rise You Gotta Fall

I been sittin’ on the porch this morning

Just strumming and smoking green

Thinking about the highs and lows

Between now and when I was 18

When you walk into the garden gate

You’re bound to get bit by a snake

Guess you don’t know love without a little heartache

How can you know good until you know better?

If you’re looking for love get ready to get hurt

You can’t win ‘em all and to rise you gotta fall

So I went down to Salinas

To find work and to clear my head

Got a job as a hired hand

When the harvest time came near

But the dirt went dust and the crops dried out

If you don’t get to market there’s no payout

Guess you don’t praise the rain

Until you’ve had a drought

How can you know good until you know better?

You’re gonna find pain on your way to pleasure

But it’s the bumpy roads

That lead you where you need to go

And bring you home

Went looking for some perspective

So I knocked on my mama’s door

My heart was filled with sorrow

And I collapsed right there on her floor

She said, “Girl you best not cry any longer

Life is cruel and it just gets harder

But what doesn’t kill you makes your story longer”

She said, “How can you know good

Until you know better?

If you’re looking for love get ready to get hurt

Life’s a hurricane but the magic’s what remains

Ain’t no rainbow without a little rain”

Oh how can you know good until you know better?

If I knew what I know now I’d write me a letter

Saying you can’t win ‘em all

But to rise you gotta fall, to rise you gotta fall