Cracker

Lyrics

Piney Woods

Packed up my Valiant
station wagon with my clothes
it was almost midnight
when I left Los Angeles
drove through the desert
on a moonless night
then I saw the sunrise
the other side of Flagstaff

Drove cross the reservation
with an aching in my heart
would I see my family
ever again
checked into a motel
Gallup, New Mexico
dreamed about my grandmother
she was speaking to me

Come see my grandson
I’m in the piney woods
you on your way to Virginia
come see me son
Come see your family
your uncles buried in this soil
so you can understand
where it all comes from

The dark malaise that comes to you
on a bright and sunny day
the feeling that something bad
could happen any time
it is a family wound
cuts across three generations son
you carry it inside of you
just like your father did

My oldest son
was murdered in these fields
a man came to the house
owed my husband money
If I can take your son, William
to El Dorado
I’ll bring him back home
with everything that I owe

They took off in a small plane
and circled our fields
he pointed the plane downward
it crashed into the ground
As William lay dying
his little brother looked on
that’s what your father carries
it’s inside of you too

The dark malaise that comes to you
on a bright and sunny day
the feeling that something bad
could happen any time
it is a family wound
cuts across three generations son
you carry it inside of you
just like your father did

My aunts husband Johnny
took us fishing on the Arkansas
he put in the boat
down under a bridge
and he caught a drum fish
gave to a young black man
says “something I’m not proud of
I was in the Klu Klux Klan”

We left that night for Memphis
we drove east in the hot night
broke down in a rice field
just off the interstate
mosquitos they swarmed us
they were eating us alive
I can’t escape this country
I guess it’s my cross to bear