Parchman Farm

Lyrics: Mose Allison
Music: Mose Allison

This is listed as having been played once by the Dead in 1966. DeadBase list it as by "White", which suggests it is the Bukka White song "Parchman Farm Blues." I don't have the tape, but I suspect it was more likely to have been the Mose Allison song "Parchman Farm", covered also by John Mayall. But I stand ready to be corrected. The Mose Allison song goes:


I'm sitting over here on Parchman Farm
I'm sitting over here on Parchman Farm
I'm sitting over here on Parchman Farm
Ain't never done no man no harm

Well I'm throwing that cotton in an eleven foot sack
Well I'm throwing that cotton in an eleven foot sack
Well I'm throwing that cotton in an eleven foot sack
Twelve guage shotgun at my back

Well I'm sitting over here on Number Nine
Well I'm sitting over here on Number Nine
Well I'm sitting over here on Number Nine
And all I did is drink my wine

Well I'm gonna be here for the rest of my life
Well I'm gonna be here for the rest of my life
Well I'm gonna be here for the rest of my life
And all I did was shoot my wife


The Bukka White song goes:

Judge gave me life this morning down on Parchman Farm
Judge gave me life this morning down on Parchman Farm
I would hate it so bad but I felt my wife been moaning

Oh goodbye wife, all you have done gone
Oh goodbye wife, all you have done gone
But I hope some day you will hear my lonesome song

Oh listen here man, I don't mean no harm
Oh listen here man, I don't mean no harm
If you wanna do good, you better stay off Parchamn Farm

We gotta wake in the morning, just at the dawn of day
We gotta wake in the morning, just at the dawn of day
[??]

I'm down on old Parchman Farm but I wanna go back home
I'm down on old Parchman Farm but I wanna go back home
But I hope someday I will overcome





Further Information
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography

 


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