Boss Jack

Lyrics

[Intro] Ride this train to Dyess, Arkansas See this cotton land? Some of us are so poor now you'd have to sell 'em a sack of fertilizer to raise an umbrella. They grade the cotton according to the length and strength of the fiber and they been raising a lot of fair to middling grade here, which ain't good But there was a time... yeah, there was a time when the cotton grew tall. Not far from here I had the finest plantation you ever saw. About 600 acres of the finest cotton land in the country. Now, I believe this was about 1855 and I had a bumper crop that year. I had the best bunch of slaves you ever saw and I treated 'em right. A lot of 'em even stayed with me after the war But gettin' back to what I was gonna tell you... See, I have a rule that all the slaves got to be back in out of the fields and accounted for by sundown every day. And one day, when they came in, there was one short. Well, I found out right away that it was old Uncle Moses that was missing. And I figured something might have happened to him, old as he was. So I went out into the cotton field to look for him Well, Uncle Moses was way down at the end of the road, sitting on his cotton sack. Well, I walked up and said, "Uncle Moses, don't you know the rule that you're supposed to be punished if you're not back in and accounted for by dark?" And he said, "Boss Jack, I know that, sir. But I was picking along on my road and, all of a sudden, something seemed to come over me. And the finest words started coming through my head and the finest music. So I memorized them words and that music 'til I had it all in my head. Now that I got the song all through, I guess, Boss Jack, I was ready to take my punishment." Well, I didn't hardly know what to say, but I asked Uncle Moses to sing that song for me. And he stood up there and for the first time, he sang "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". Well, after that, I kinda laid old Uncle Moses off and let him pedal around the house. And every night at dark, you could hear him singing, and he sang another song once in a while that made me feel awful proud [Verse 1] Pick a lotta cotton, drag a long sack Coming across the field, well, I see Boss Jack He's a-riding straddle of a single-foot roan When you know that horse, you'll leave him alone That ole roan's got green in his eyes Mean as the devil and twice as wise A fire in his nose and a bow in his back Can't nobody ride him but Boss Jack [Chorus] "Come on children, bend your back Work a little faster, fill your sack Then you hitch up the wagon, take it to the gin Finish picking before the winter sets in" [Verse 2] Now, here a while back, when the crop was laid by Remember who took us on a big fish fry? Caught a heap of catfish, goggle-eye, and carp Dashed and sang to the guitar and the harp Well, someday old Boss Jack is going to set us all free Gabriel's gonna blow for you and me Angels going to bring that chariot from above Flapping their wings like a turtledove [Chorus] "Come on children, bend your back Work a little faster, fill your sack Then you hitch up the wagon, take it to the gin Finish picking before the winter sets in"