1. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden (2:25) - The tempo is fast. The narrator never promised his girlfriend that every moment of their relationship would be happy. She must learn to take the good with the bad, the shine with the rain, or leave him.
2. I've Got To Be Somebody (3:01) - The tempo is slightly faster than moderate. The narrator, having been raised by a hard-working mother and a lazy father, never had any goals in life. Then one day he met and fell in love with a girl. Now he does have ambition; he prays that he will find a way to make a living and keep the girl's love.
3. I Knew You When (2:31) - This slow, 12/8 song is one of Billy Joe's three hits that I hear on the radio. The narrator knew the girl in days when she was sad and scared. Then, after an upward change of socioeconomic status, she dumped him. Now he's the sad and lonely one.
4. Tulsa (3:36) - This moderately slow song features orchestral strings and a tambourine. The narrator's daughter Jamie is pregnant with a child whose father is the guy to whom the narrator sings. The younger guy abandoned Jamie when he learned of the pregnancy; in retaliation, the narrator warns him to leave Tulsa by sunset, or the narrator will kill him. Waylon Jennings also sang a version of this song.
5. Down In The Boondocks (2:32) - This fast song is my favorite of Billy Joe's songs and the one that the radio plays most often. It opens with four whole-note strums of the guitar. What I like most is the poor boy-rich girl theme. Just because the narrator was born on his city's poor side, people ridicule him. Since he works for the father of the girl he loves, he doesn't visit her at home; instead, she sneaks out to meet him whenever she can. He resolves to work and save his way out of poverty. I also like the rise of the key from A to B in the middle of the song.
6. Hush (2:28) - The tempo is moderate. When the drums play, a tambourine plays on every other beat. The narrator lost a girlfriend once. He seems to hear her calling his name, as if she wants to start their relationship anew; that's why he asks the listener to be quiet. Deep Purple sang the version I occasionally hear on the radio.
7. Heart's Desire (2:37) - This moderately fast song features horns and a tambourine. In the second verse the narrator says, "There ought to be a law against the way you turn me on." That's probably because illegality tends to make things appealing. In any case, his heart desires the girl to whom he's singing.
8. Campfire Girls (2:28) - The tempo is fast, with a tambourine beating on the third beat of most measures. This song is the non-radio hit of Billy Joe's that I like best. It's not so much about the Campfire Girls, but more about the girl's treatment of the narrator. Since she treats love like a game and laughs when he cries, he tells her to "go start over again" and "do all the things that little girls do."
9. Every Night (3:11) - The tempo is somewhat slower than moderate. At the frequency named in the title, the narrator wants to wander and go crazy; every day he desires to remain in bed. But this particular night, he wants to be with the girl to whom he's singing.
10. Cherry Hill Park (3:00) - This is the third of Billy Joe's songs that the radio plays. The tempo is slightly faster than moderate, with instruments including a tambourine and horns. The place named in the title used to be the round-the-clock hangout of a girl named Mary Hill. Guys enjoyed the games she used to play with them. Now that she has met and married a rich man, the guys at the park miss her.