Woody's Rag/hard Work Paroles

Work of the hardest kind. I been down and I been out
and I've been busted, disgusted and couldn't be trusted.

I worked my way up and I worked my way down. I've
been drunk and I've been sober. I've had hard times
and I got hijacked and been robbed for cash and robbed
on credit.

Worked my way into jail and outta jail and I woke up
a lotta mornings and I didn't even know where I was at.

But the hardest work I ever done is when I was trying
to get myself a worried woman to ease my worried
mind.

Now I'm gonna tell you just about how much hard
work I had to do to get this here woman that I'm a-tellin'
you about.
Kissed 73 babies and put dry pants on 34 of 'em, as well
as others, and done the When thing several times, as well
as a lot of other things just about like this.

I held 125 head of wild horses, put saddles and bridles
on more than that, harnessed some of the craziest,
wildest teams in the whole country. I rode 14 loco
broncos to a dead standstill and let 42 hound dogs lick
me all over.

7 times I was bit by hungry dogs and I was chewed
all to pieces by water moccasins and rattlesnakes on
2 separate river bottoms.

I chopped and I carried 314 arm loads of stoved
wood; 100 buckets of coal, and I carried a gallon of
kerosene 18 miles and lost a good pair of shoes in a
mud hole.

And I chopped and I weeded 48 rows of short cotton,
13 acres of bad corn and cut the sticker weeds out of
11 back yards, all on account a 'cause I wanted to
show her that I was a man and I liked to work

I cleaned out 9 barnloads, and cranked 31 automobiles,
all makes and models, pulled 3 cars out of mud
holes and 4 out of snowdrifts.

I dug 5 cisterns of water for some of her friends and
neighbors and run all kinds of errands.

I played the fiddle for 9 church meetings and I joined
11 separate denominations. I signed up and joined
up for 7 of the best trade unions I could find and paid
my dues about 6 weeks ahead of time, waded 40
miles of swamps, 60 big rivers, walked across 2
mountain ranges and crossed 3 deserts.

I got the fever and I got the sun stroke and I got the
malaria and I got the flu and I got moonstruck and
skeeter bit, the poison ivy and the 7 year itch and the
blind staggers.

I was given up for lost and dead about 2 dozen times.
Struck by lightning, struck by Congress, struck
by friends and kinfolks, as well as by 3 cars on
the highways and a lotta times in peoples'
henhouses.

I been hit and run down and run over and
walked on and knocked around and I'm just
settin' here now trying to study up what else I
can do to show that woman that I still ain't afraid
of hard work