Papa's Medicine Show

(album: Local Gentry - 1968)

It doesn't seem so long ago when papa had his medicine show
All the family had a part, I still know them all by heart
Everywhere we traveled we sang that little song
Just sold enough linament to barely get along

One bottle, two bottle, three bottle, four
Mama looks twenty but she's really eighty four
Look at poppa fiddle, just listen to him play
Had a touch of rhuematism just the other day
Then he threw away his water bottle, put away his pills
Aunt Perdy's linament cured all his ills

One year in Oklahoma pop was getting old
There wasn't much demand for medicine shows
I still can hear us singing to a dwindiling crowd that spring
We didn't know that it would be the last time we would sing

One bottle, two bottle, buy it by the quart
Uncle John used it on his foot and cured a wart
All you people sitting here in the front row
Don't you want to try it it'll cure a sore toe
If you throw away your water bottle, put away your pills
Aunt Perdy's linament'll cure all your ills

Papa started ailing and passed away that fall
We all had to pick cotton to pay the funeral hall
I never got much schooling, but I learned one thing for sure
There are things in this old life Aunt Perdy's couldn't cure

One bottle, two bottle, three bottle, four
Mama looks twenty but she's really eighty four
Look at poppa fiddle, just listen to him play
Had a touch of rhuematism just the other day
But he threw away his water bottle, put away his pills
Aunt Perdy's linament cured all his ills

One bottle, two bottle, buy it by the quart
Uncle John used it on his foot and cured a wart
All you people sitting here in the front row
Don't you want to try it it'll cure a sore toe
If you throw away your water bottle, put away your pills
Aunt Perdy's linament'll cure all your ills

One bottle, two bottle, three bottle, four
Mama looks twenty but she's really eighty four
Look at poppa fiddle, just listen to him play
Had a touch of rhuematism just the other day
But he threw away his water bottle, put away his pills
Aunt Perdy's linament cured all his ills