Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, a cowboy learns a valuable life lesson in Kenny Rogers’ 1991 hit, “If You Want to Find Love.”
Co-written by Rogers, Skip Ewing and Max D. Barnes, the song uses multiple jewelry and precious metal references to tell the story of two strangers who meet in a bar. The man has a cheating heart, but the woman sets him straight.
She counters the cowboy’s not-so-subtle advances with the following advice: “If you wanna find gold / Go looking in the mountains / If you wanna find silver / Go digging in stones / If you wanna find heaven / Go reading in the Bible / If you wanna find love / Go looking at home.”
Later in the song, the woman turns her attention to the cowboy’s wedding band.
Rogers sings, “She touched the gold ring on his finger / And held it to the jukebox light / And she said, ‘Stranger, think what you’re losing / If you leave here with me tonight.'”
“If You Want to Find Love” was released as the first single from Back Home Again, the county music superstar’s 24th studio album. The single reached #11 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Born in Houston in 1938, Kenneth Ray “Kenny” Rogers was one of the most successful country artists of all time. He charted more than 120 singles and topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks. In all, he sold 100+ million records worldwide and, amazingly, charted a record in seven different decades.
In 2015, he announced that he would be retiring from show business after a final tour, which he titled “The Gambler’s Last Deal.” Shows were scheduled through 2018, but he was forced to cut the tour short in April of that year because of health issues. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 81.
Please check out the audio track of Rogers performing “If You Want To Find Love.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“If You Want To Find Love”
Written by Skip Ewing, Max D. Barnes and Kenny Rogers. Performed by Kenny Rogers.
He was sitting on a bar stool
A picture from a cheating song
She’d been standing by the jukebox
Dropping quarters all night long.
He said, "Tell me: are you lonely?
Is there someplace we can go?
She said, "Cowboy, you know I’m lonely
But there’s something you should know"
If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in the stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.
She touched the gold ring on his finger
And held it to the jukebox light
And she said, "Stranger, think what you’re losing
If you leave here with me tonight."
So he pulled her body closer
She felt feelings she’d never known
And he said, "Thank you, for the lesson
And if you need me I’ll be at home."
If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in the stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.
If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.
If you wanna find love, love, love
Go looking at home
Credit: Photo courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. UH Digital Library.