Cotton Mill Man

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I was born in the shadow of a cotton mill smokestack, down in an Alabama bottom land.
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Where my Grandpappy broke his back, pullin’ on a cotton sack, to raise my Pa to be a cotton 
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mill man.
        Am                      Em                  Am                                  Em
I got a lot of memories of government commodities, -------- when all our meat came in a can.
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While the boss man on the hill cut a steak and ate his fill, called upon to clean his grill, 
  B           E
a cotton mill man


[Chorus]

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Lord, don’t let my son grow up to be a sweaty cotton mill man.


[Verse 2]

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I grew up in the gloom of a cotton mill weave room, with weaver’s glue and calluses all over 
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my hands
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I didn’t have a honeymoon, couldn’t leave my cotton loom
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I swore my son would never be a cotton mill man

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E|wat| ched my woman cry, when our baby daughter died, -----  I couldn’t make her understand 

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Why the doctor never came, the lack of money was the blame,
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I cursed the day that I became a cotton mill man.

[Repeat Chorus]

F                  G              F           G           C
Lord, don’t let my son grow up to be a sweaty cotton mill man.


[Verse 3]

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The company taught us all the rules, on how to work their spinning spools
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So the boss’s son could drive a big black sedan
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The company owned the houses and the company owned the grammar schools
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It’s hard to be an educated cotton mill man
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They figure you don’t need to learn, anything but how to earn, the money that you pay upon 
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demand
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To the general store they own or else they take away your home
    F#                             B           E
And give it to some other homeless cotton mill man


[Repeat Chorus]

F                  G              F           G           C
Lord, don’t let my son grow up to be a sweaty cotton mill man.


[Repeat Chorus]

F                  G              F           G           C
Lord, don’t let my son grow up to be a sweaty cotton mill man.