Sawmill

Lyrics: Mel Tillis/Horace Whatley
Music: Mel Tillis/Horace Whatley

This was a country hit for Mel Tillis which the Grateful Dead covered a few times in 1970. A studio rehearsal has also recently surfaced.

It was also played by Bob Weir with the New Riders of the Purple Sage in 1969.

Well I can't work no more at the sawmill
Talk about a poor boy, talk about a poor boy
Let me have a dollar bill

Yes my work was so hard at the sawmill
Talk about a poor boy, talk about a poor boy
Let me have a dollar bill

See my teardrops falling down
My wife left this sawmill town
She said sawmill life had been a sin
The gravy were too thin

I can't work no more at the sawmill
Talk about a poor boy, talk about a poor boy
Let me have a dollar bill

Well if you take your wife to the sawmill
How you gonna please her, how you gonna please her
When she wants a dollar bill

She run away and leave you at the sawmill
Woman like a dollar, women like a dollar
Yes and women always will

See my teardrops falling down
My wife left this sawmill town
She said sawmill life had been a sin
The gravy were too thin

I can't work no more at the sawmill
Talk about a poor boy, talk about a poor boy
Never have a dollar bill

Women like a dollar, women like a dollar
Yes and women always will