Long Summer Day
Two Gallants| Original | Trovata - sempre sull'imprescindibile Mudcat Café - la versione ... |
| LONG SUMMER DAY All i’ve ever known is poor. Owe my skin to the country store. Don’t own my walls, my roof, my door, and he tells me i’m free. But why fight the will to live. Hell might take but heaven gives, there’s only one so i’ll forgive. No I ain’t one to grieve. But the summer day makes a white man lazy. He sits on his porch killing time. I’ve got to work to feed my wife and baby. I work so goddamn hard that it’s a crime. Well, I went down to the polling place but the white man there just laughed in my face. Said, “Boy, this ain’t no nigger’s race. You best get on your way. “Sir, i believe i’ve got the right.” He said, “You ain’t got nothin’ if you ain’t white. And i thought i said get out of sight.” Well, what was I to say? The summer day makes a white man lazy. When i was about the age of five, i watched my daddy burned alive. They cut him low and they hung him high, swaying in the breeze. But the last words I heard him say before they stole his life that day was “Forgive them lord, they’ve gone astray. Please take me to my ease.” The summer day makes a white man lazy. Well, I don’t know but I heard tell of a furnace below, a place called hell and who would catch me if i fell? Who would pray for me? But one thing i see for sure, it’s hot as hell up here, I know, and the devil lives right down the road. It’s all the same to me. ‘cause the summer day makes a white man lazy. He sits on his porch killing time. But the summer day makes a nigga’ feel crazy. Might make me do something out of line. Well if you should see my wife tell her I won’t be home tonight, so don’t leave on the light. I’ve got a little business down the road. And if i’m dead by sunrise kiss my baby girl for me. It ain’t life if it ain’t free. I’ve got a mighty burden to unload. | LONG SUMMER DAY Long summer day make a white man crazy, long summer day Long summer day make a nigger run away, long summer day Long summer day make a man run away, long summer day Long summer day make a slave run away, long summer day Pickin that cotton in the bottom field, long summer day It's gathering up the cotton in the bottom field, long summer day Master & the Misses sitting in the parlor, long summer day Thinking on how to make a slave work harder, long summer day Run away to see his Mary, long summer day Run away to see his baby, long summer day. |
