COTTON FIELDS
“Cotton Fields” is a song written by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, AKA Lead Belly.
It has been covered by Bill Monroe, Teresa Brewer, Harry Belafonte (1958), The
Highwaymen (1961), Johnny Cash (1962), Buck Owens (1963), Odetta (1963), Ace
Cannon (1963), The Seekers (1964), Unit 4+2 (1965), The Robert De Cormier Singers
(1966), The Beach Boys (1969-1970) and Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969).
The song mentions that the fields are “down in Louisiana, just about a mile from
Texarkana“. This is geographically impossible (Texarkana is about 30 miles north of the
Louisiana border.)
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home.
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home.
Oh, when them cotton balls get rotten
You can’t pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home.
It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
And them old cotton fields back home.
It may sound a little funny,
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home.
It may sound a little funny,
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home.
Oh, when them cotton balls get rotten
You can’t pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home.
It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
And them old cotton fields back home.
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home.
When I was a little bitty baby
