George Gudger's Overalls

(álbum: Portrait - 1987)

As I walked out one morning
In the Alabama chill
I saw some old friends hanging
From a tree on Hobie's Hill
By their tattered legs, they dangled
Dripping down along the spine
It was old George Gudger's overalls
A-drying on the line

George Gudger, he's an honest cuss
And he loves to work his land
And I'd long admired his overalls
That I held there in my hand
My brand-new pair was stiffer
Than a starched-up Sunday suit
But his could walk around by thereselves
And plow the corn to boot

Now the knees looked almost bloody
From the red Hale County clay
George Gudger's debts and prayers
Had kept him kneeling down all day
Old George owes me money
But I owe him my respect
If his overalls will fit me
Boy, I'll forget about his debt

I stepped into them big old legs
Like falling down a mine
Then I heard a ragged chuckle
And there stood old George behind
A smile of old tobacco juice
Just trickling down his chin
He said, "You might as well try walking 'round
In someone else's skin"

"But son, if you like them old friends of mine so much
I guess I can let 'em go
Had to lend them to my wife last year
While she's carrying Little Joe
She bent down in the fields one day
And split that tired old seam
And now she's gone and beat 'em half to death
On that rock there by the stream

Yeah, the knees looked almost bloody
From the red Hale County clay
George Gudger's debts and prayers
They kept him kneeling down all day
You know I walked just like a drunken man
They dang near made me fall
They kept trying to steer me back towards Gudger's place
'Cause they're still Old George's overalls

At home, before the mirror
I seemed to be a different man
In my mind, I kept seeing
His farmed-out patch of land
So I took him back his overalls
And a week's supply of food
I also left my brand new pair
And I sneaked home in the nude