Levon Helm - Growing Trade lyrics

rate me

I worked the land to raise a family

‘til I was weary to the bone

But hard labor never bothered me

Lord, it’s all I’ve ever known

Too many seasons of calamity

And too much interest on the loan

I’m half the size that I used to be

And half of that is stone

The crops ain’t worth the seeding

10 will only get you 5

The livestock I’m a-feeding

I can hardly keep them alive

I’ve got to do what I can to survive

I know the law won’t be forgiving

But that’ll be the choice I make

I used to farm for a living

And now I’m in the growing trade

The summer beauty of the cotton field

Was like a view from heaven’s door

My granddaddy said that harvest time

Was what the good lord made us for

I guess he’d wonder where’s the dignity

In a crop you raise to burn

But this land is my legacy

I got nowhere else to turn

Shotgun on my shoulder

Where a tote sack ought to be

The thieves are getting bolder

And the feds may be watching me

I’ve got to quit this eventually

I know the law won’t be forgiving

But that’ll be the choice I make

I used to farm for a living

But now I’m in the growing trade

Helicopters in the distance

Coming closer everyday

They’re going to meet some resistance

Ain’t no price too big to pay

There won’t be any difference

When they take it all away

Between a cot in the jail house

And a bed beneath the clay

I guess there’s nothing to do now but pray

I know the law won’t be forgiving

But that’ll be the choice I make

I used to farm for a living

And now I’m in the growing trade