Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back

(album: A Bird Named Yesterday - 1967)

They passed an ordinance in the town they said we'd have to tear it down
That little old shack out back so dear to me
Though the health department said its day was over and dead
It will stand forever in my memory.

Don't let them tear that little brown building down
Don't let them tear that precious building down
Don't let them tear that dear old building down
There's not another like it in the country or the town.

It was not so long ago that I went tripping through the snow
Out to that house behind my old hound dog
Where I would sit me down to rest like a snowbird on his nest
And I'd read that Sears and Roebuck catalog.

Oh, I would hum a happy tune peeping through the quarter moon
As my daddy's kin had done so much before
It was in that quiet spot daily cares could be forgot
And it gave the same relief to rich and poor.

Don't let them tear that little brown building down
Don't let them tear that precious building down
Don't let them tear that dear old building down
There's not another like it in the country or the town.

Now it was not a castle fair but I could dream of future there
Build my castle to the yellow jackets drone
I could orbit round the sun fight with General Washington
Or be a king upon a golden throne.

It wasn't fancy built at all we had newspapers on the wall
It was air-conditioned in the wintertime
Oh it was just an humble hut but its door was never shut
And a man could get inside without a dime.

Don't let them tear that little brown building down
Don't let them tear that precious building down
Don't let them tear that dear old building down
There's not another like it in the country or the town...

[Narrative by Bobby spoken after song:]

(He's hanging around a saw mill town.)
I'm from the Saw Mill town myself and nobody ever bought my hometown
I don't think anybody wanted it after they shut down the saw mill.