When Lilly Was Queen

(album: Belly Up! - 1973)

Lilly Pearl standing by the woodstove
Cooking up a pot of fatback and beans
Aprons made outta Martha White flour sack
Them was the days when Lilly was queen

There's gonna be a family reunion
Down around Little River Park
Lilly got a brand new baby they say
Jesse Brown had to up and run away
It might as well rain 'cause nobody came
Jesse left so fast the baby got no name

Lilly Pearl, what'cha gonna name your baby?
Lilly Pearl, what'cha gonna name your child?
Lilly Pearl, they say he run away and left you crazy
But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile

Lilly Pearl told most folks
She could raise her baby fine without a man
But she cried at the table to her kin folk
Her people cried with her, but did they understand?

Lilly Pearl still standing by the woodstove
Talking to a pot of fatback and beans
Twenty years later, still cooking a spread
But there's no reunion 'cause the family's mostly dead
They took her baby at the age of 13
Left her living in the days when Lilly was queen

Lilly Pearl, did you ever name your baby?
Lilly Pearl, do you ever miss your child?
Lilly Pearl, his daddy run away and left you crazy
But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile

Lilly Pearl, you never gonna know your baby?
Lilly Pearl, they never let you see your child?
Lilly Pearl, they say he run away and left you crazy
But ooh ooh your man had a pretty smile