There's a whole lotta people lookin' down their noses at me
'Cause I didn't come from a wealthy family
There was ten of us livin' in a two room shack
On the banks of the river by the railroad track
We kept chickens in a pen in the back
And everybody said we was po' folks
My daddy was a farmer but all he ever raised was us
Dug a forty foot well, struck thirty six gallons of dust
The Salvation Army give us clothes to wear
A man from the county came to cut our hair
We lived next door to a millionaire
But we wasn't nothin' 'cept po' folks
We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world
We sure was a hungry bunch
If the wolf had ever come to our front door
He'd have had brought a picnic lunch
My granddaddy's pension was a dollar and thirty three cents
That was ten dollar less than the landlord wanted for rent
The landlord's letters got nasty indeed
He wrote 'Get out' but Pa couldn't read
And we was too broke to even pay heed
But that's how it is when you're po' folks
We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world
We sure was a hungry bunch
If the wolf had ever come to our front door
He'd have had brought a picnic lunch
But we had something in our house money can't buy
Kept us warm in the winter, cool when the sun was high
For whenever we didn't have food enough
And the howlin' winds would get pretty rough
We patched the cracks and set the table with love
'Cause that's what you do when you're po' folks
And we wasn't nothin' but po' folks
My mom and my dad was po' folks
My brother and my sister was po' folks
My dog and my cat was po' folks...
'Cause I didn't come from a wealthy family
There was ten of us livin' in a two room shack
On the banks of the river by the railroad track
We kept chickens in a pen in the back
And everybody said we was po' folks
My daddy was a farmer but all he ever raised was us
Dug a forty foot well, struck thirty six gallons of dust
The Salvation Army give us clothes to wear
A man from the county came to cut our hair
We lived next door to a millionaire
But we wasn't nothin' 'cept po' folks
We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world
We sure was a hungry bunch
If the wolf had ever come to our front door
He'd have had brought a picnic lunch
My granddaddy's pension was a dollar and thirty three cents
That was ten dollar less than the landlord wanted for rent
The landlord's letters got nasty indeed
He wrote 'Get out' but Pa couldn't read
And we was too broke to even pay heed
But that's how it is when you're po' folks
We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world
We sure was a hungry bunch
If the wolf had ever come to our front door
He'd have had brought a picnic lunch
But we had something in our house money can't buy
Kept us warm in the winter, cool when the sun was high
For whenever we didn't have food enough
And the howlin' winds would get pretty rough
We patched the cracks and set the table with love
'Cause that's what you do when you're po' folks
And we wasn't nothin' but po' folks
My mom and my dad was po' folks
My brother and my sister was po' folks
My dog and my cat was po' folks...
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2020/11/3 - 16:28
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Una delle prime hit di questo importante cantautore country.
Una country song che credo possa stare a buon diritto sulle CCG/AWS, anche se proviene dal sud profondo, rurale e bianco degli USA, tradizionalmente conservatore, repubblicano, trumpiano.
E di quel Deep South questa canzone ha una parte del sentimento, la parte buona.
A dire il vero, Bill Anderson non era nato affatto nelle campagne del South Carolina, ma nella capitale Columbia, in una famiglia piccolo borghese. Cantautore di chiaro talento, ha saputo amministrarsi molto bene, ed è ancora attivo oggi, ad oltre sessantanni dai suoi esordi.
Bill Anderson non ha mai disdegnato una foto e una stratta di mano con qualche esponente repubblicano, e la sua "Po' Folks" è diventato il nome di una catena di fast food...
E' vero, anche Johnny Cash era un patriota, e si esibiva mica solo nei penitenziari, anche alla Casa Bianca di Nixon... Però Johnny Cash nel 1970 davanti a Nixon cantò What Is Truth?. Invece Bill Anderson quello stesso anno cantava Where Have All Our Heroes Gone.... Ecco perchè su questo sito ci sono una trentina di canzoni di The Man in Black e non ce n'era ancora nessuna di Bill Anderson.