Hey Nelly Nelly

(album: The Judy Collins Concert - 1964)

Hey Nelly, Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly, Nelly, look at what I see
He's riding into town on a sway-back mule
He's got a tall black hat and he looks like a fool
He sure is talking like he's been to school, and it's 1853

Hey Nelly, Nelly, listen what he's saying
Hey Nelly, Nelly, he says it's getting late
And he says them black folks should be free
To walk around the same as you and me
He's talking about a thing he calls democracy, and it's 1858

Hey Nelly, Nelly, hear the band a-playing
Hey Nelly, Nelly, hand me down my gun
For the men are cheering and the boys are too
They're all putting on their coats of blue
I can't sit around here and talk to you, and it's 1861

Hey Nelly, Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly, Nelly, I've come home alive
My coat of blue is stained with red
And the man in the tall black hat is dead
But we sure will remember all the things he said, in 1865

Hey Nelly, Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly, Nelly, look at what I see
I see white folks and colored walking side by side
Thy're walking in a column that's a century wide
It was a long and a hard and a bloody ride, in 1963