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lyrics

Come all you good people I pray you draw near
And a comical ditty you shortly shall hear,
A comical ditty to you I’ll unfold,
I went to Missouri when twenty years old.

Refrain:
Down, down and a derry down, down (2)

I stopped at a tavern to stay all night,
The supper and breakfast I thought was alright,
The table was set and the nicknacks were spread
‘Twas hoecake and hominy and a possum head.

And after those people were heartily fed
On hoecake and hominy and a possum head,
The pallet was made, the sheepskin was spread,
“And now,” said the old man, “we’ll all go to bed.”

I laid myself down, expecting some ease,
But scarcely couldn’t rest for the lice and the fleas,
The lice they would bite and the fleas they would crawl.
‘Twas enough to torment any human at all.

I kicked and I cuffed and I fought them all night
I scarcely could scratch as fast as they’d bite
The roughest entertainment that I ever saw
Was a-lying on a pallet of sheepskin and straw.

Adieu to Missouri, l bid you farewell,
I’ll go back to Arkansas where I used to dwell,
Where the ladies was a-raring and a-tearing their hair
With thoughts of their lover when I left them there.

Where the ladies was a-raring and a-tearing their hair
With grief for their lover when I left them there.

Down, down and a derry down, down.

credits

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 5: Grown on American Soil, released August 7, 2023
Recorded by Mark Wilson, Bill Nowlin, Ken Irwin and Marion Leighton, Fayville, MA, 5/72.

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Field Recorders' Collective

The Field Recorders’ Collective is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and distribution of noncommercial recordings of traditional American music, material that is unavailable to the general public.

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