OH! SINGER
(Myra Smith / Margaret Lewis)


Jeannie C. Riley - 1971


Oh! singer, sing me an old song, yeah

Oh! singer, sing me an old song
Sing me an old song about cotton bales
Tell me how the good earth feels down in the high white cotton, yeah
'Cause in my life I'll never get to walk on my knees in the fields

Oh! singer, sing about the railroad
Sing about a coal shovelin' fireman on the L and N rail
Let me gather round the fire with all the people in the depot
'Cause in my life, singer, I'll never ride those coal fire trains

Take me back, oh! singer, take me back
I'm livin' a life I can't slow down 'cept with a song
And I wanna know how the people made it without big corporations
And I wanna feel how the people lived when life was slow

Oh! singer, take me to the river
Let me ride the big riverboat down to New Orleans
Let me lean overboard and wash my hands in the Mississippi water
'Cause, singer, I can only ride that boat in a song you sing

Take me back, oh! singer, take me back
I'm livin' a life I can't slow down 'cept with a song
And I wanna know how the people made it without big corporations
And I wanna feel how the people lived when life was slow

Oh! singer, sing me an old song
Sing me an old song about cotton bales
Tell me how the good earth feels down in the high white cotton, yeah
'Cause in my life I'll never get to walk on my knees in the fields
In the fields






(Transcribed by Mel Priddle - December 2011)