Down in South Carolina in the piny woods
Where they make sweet turpentine;
There I first saw the light of day
Landin on my mind.
Runnin in the sunshine laughin,
Rollin in the red dirt cryin.

I said, hmmh,
Good God have mercy.

Canary warehouses, baby, I went to school;
I even lunched from the cans of our store;
Heatin them up on a hot-bellied stove;
I used to keep out in the cold.
Sittin around, you know, just to tell em lies about, 
ah,
What I'd be when I grew old.

I said, hmmh,
Good God have mercy.

Trestlin the track down, mama, where the BNN 
Freight train caught daddy one day; 
He took a long, long fall.
I'd only been taught to think on life;
Never thought on death at all.

I said, hmmh,
Good God have mercy.

Now every Sunday after church
There'd be a meeting on the ground.
Some good soul, she would always say
It's a shame about Frieda Brown!
Mama and the ladies they formed a society;
They'd run Frieda out of town.

I said, hmmh,
Good God have mercy.

Daddy's on the main line, mama wants him home,
Daddy's on the main line, the kid don't need him home.

Good God have mercy.