(Ray Sawyer/Dennis Locorriere/Ron Haffkine)



Lilly Pearl standin' by the woodstove

Cookin' up a pot of fatback and beans

Aprons made outta Martha White flour sack

Them was the days when Lilly was queen



There's gonna be a family reunion

Down around Little River Park

Lilly got a brand new baby they say

Jesse Brown had to up and run away

It might as well rain 'cause nobody came

Jesse left so fast the baby got no name



Lilly Pearl, what'cha gonna name your baby?

Lilly Pearl, what'cha gonna name your child?

Lilly Pearl, they say he run away and left you crazy

But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile



Lilly Pearl told most folks

She could raise her baby fine without a man

But she cried at the table to her kin folk

Her people cried with her, but did they understand?



Lilly Pearl still standin' by the woodstove

Talkin' to a pot of fatback and beans

Twenty years later, still cookin' a spread

But there's no reunion 'cause the family's mostly dead

They took her baby at the age of 13

Left her livin' in the days when Lilly was queen



Lilly Pearl, did you ever name your baby?

Lilly Pearl, do you ever miss your child?

Lilly Pearl, his daddy run away and left you crazy

But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile



Lilly Pearl, you never gonna know your baby?

Lilly Pearl, they never let you see your child?

Lilly Pearl, they say he run away and left you crazy

But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile



(c) 1973 Blackwood Music Inc., & Reekooh Music