Lyrics California Cotton Fields - 1973 Live Version - Gram Parsons

My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43
When I was just a child in mama's arms
My daddy plowed the ground and prayed that some day we could leave
This run down mortgaged Oklahoma farm

And then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my mama
That he finally saved enough to go
California was his dream, a paradise for he had seen
Lots of pretty girls in magazines that told him so

California cotton fields
Where labor camps were filled with varied man with broken dreams
California cotton fields
As close to wealth as daddy ever came

Well, almost everything we had was sold or left behind
From my daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
Some folks came to say farewell and see what all we had to sell
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand

Oh, the Model A was loaded down and California bound
And a change of luck was just four days away, yeah
But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver-grey

California cotton fields
Where labor camps were filled with varied man with broken dreams
California cotton fields
As close to wealth as daddy ever came

Thank you very much, thank you
Anyway, we're gonna leave you now with this song
Well, we're leaving anyway
"Six Days on the Road"
And we're gonna make it to Philadelphia tonight
Yeah, come on down to Philadelphia, it's a nice plain there
Pennsylvania, my favorite