Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven,
I had a little farm and I called it heaven.
prices up and the rain come down,
And I hauled my crops all into town --
I got the money,
bought clothes and groceries,
Fed the kids,
Took it easy.
Rain did quit and the wind got high,
And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky.
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine,
And I filled it full of this gas-i-line --
And started,
rollin' an' a-driftin'..to California
Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
I was a-goin' pretty fast, I wasn't even stoppin',
I was a-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn a-poppin' --
Had a breakdown,
sort of a nervous bustdown
of the a-mechanism there,
Some kind of en-gine trouble...
It's a Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I wasn't feelin' so very good
And I gave this rollin' Ford a shove
An' I was a-gonna coast as far as I could --
Commenced rollin', pickin' up speed,
And there was a hairpin turn,and I couldn't make it.
Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you,
The fiddles and the guitars really flew.
That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
An' it flew halfway around the world --
Scattered wives and childrens
All over the side of that mountain.
We got to old Los Angeles broke,
So dad-gum hungry we thought we'd choke,
An' I b**med up a spud or two,
An' my wife fixed up a 'tater stew --
Fed the kids a big batch of it,
But that was mighty thin stew
So dad-gum thin you could pretty nearly
read a magazine through it.
If it'd been just a little bit thinner,
I've always believed
If that stew had been just a little bit thinner
Some of our senators
Could have seen through it.
I had a little farm and I called it heaven.
prices up and the rain come down,
And I hauled my crops all into town --
I got the money,
bought clothes and groceries,
Fed the kids,
Took it easy.
Rain did quit and the wind got high,
And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky.
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine,
And I filled it full of this gas-i-line --
And started,
rollin' an' a-driftin'..to California
Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
I was a-goin' pretty fast, I wasn't even stoppin',
I was a-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn a-poppin' --
Had a breakdown,
sort of a nervous bustdown
of the a-mechanism there,
Some kind of en-gine trouble...
It's a Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I wasn't feelin' so very good
And I gave this rollin' Ford a shove
An' I was a-gonna coast as far as I could --
Commenced rollin', pickin' up speed,
And there was a hairpin turn,and I couldn't make it.
Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you,
The fiddles and the guitars really flew.
That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
An' it flew halfway around the world --
Scattered wives and childrens
All over the side of that mountain.
We got to old Los Angeles broke,
So dad-gum hungry we thought we'd choke,
An' I b**med up a spud or two,
An' my wife fixed up a 'tater stew --
Fed the kids a big batch of it,
But that was mighty thin stew
So dad-gum thin you could pretty nearly
read a magazine through it.
If it'd been just a little bit thinner,
I've always believed
If that stew had been just a little bit thinner
Some of our senators
Could have seen through it.