Polk Salad Annie (Album Version) - Tony Joe White

If some of ya'll never been

Down south too much

I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this

So that you'll understand

What I'm talking about

Down there we have a plant

That grows out in the woods

And in the fields looks something

Like a turnip green

And everybody calls it polk salad

Polk salad

Used to know a girl lived down there

And she'd go out in the evenings

And pick her a mess of it

Carry it home and cook it for supper

'Cause that's about all they had to eat

But they did all right

Down in Louisiana

Where the alligators grow so mean

There lived a girl that I swear to the world

Made the alligators look tame

Polk salad Annie polk salad Annie

Everybody said it was a shame

Cause her momma was

A working on the chain gang

(A mean vicious woman)

Everyday 'fore supper time

She'd go down by the truck patch

And pick her a mess of polk salad

And carry it home in a tow sack

Polk salad Annie

The gators got your granny

Everybody says it was a shame

Cause her momma was

A working on the chain gang

A wretched spiteful

Straight-razor toting woman

Lord have Mercy pick a mess of it

Her daddy was lazy and no count

Claimed he had a bad back

All her brothers were fit

For was stealing watermelons

Out of my truck patch

Polk salad Annie

The gators got your granny

Everybody said it was a shame

Cause her momma was a working

On the chain gang

Sock a little polk salad to me

You know I need me a mess of it

Come on good girl

Gotta help me

All to all