1: Come you ladies and gentlemen listen to my song
I’m singin it right but you may think it’s wrong
It may make you mad I don’t mean no harm
It’s all about the renters on Penney’s farm
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
2: Old George Penney’s got a flattering mouth
He moves you to the country in a little old house
Holes in the windows cracks in the walls
He’ll work you all summer and starve you in the fall
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
3: You move out on Penney’s farm
Plant a little crop of bacco and a little crop of corn
All year long you work that plot
Till you get yourself a mortgage at the end of the block
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
4: Out in the fields you work all day
You work way past nine but you get no pay
They promise you meat and a little bit of lard
Say it’s hard to be a renter on Penney’s farm
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
5: Here George Penney come a rollin into town
With a wagon load of peaches none of them sound
Got to have his money or somebody’s cheque
Pay him for a bushel but you don’t get a peck
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
6: George Penney’s renters they come into town
Their hands in their pockets and their heads hangin down
They go in the store the merchant would say
Your mortgage is due I’m a waitin for my pay
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
7: So down in the pocket with a tremblin hand
I can’t pay you all but I’ll pay what I can
Then on the telephone the merchant makes a call
Throw you on the chain gang with no pay at all
Hard times in the country down on Penney’s farm.
