The Holy Modal Rounders recorded this on one of their first two albums, I don't have a turntable so I can't play them, but memory yields this much...

SAME OLD MAN
As recorded by Holy Modal Rounders on "1 & 2" (1998)

It's the same old man, sittin' at the mill.
Mill turns around of its own free will.
Yes, I'm certainly glad to be home.
New York City will continue on alone.

My mind is failin' and my body grows weak.
My lips don't form the words as I speak.
I'm floatin' away on a boat full o' pain.
You'll hear my sad cry but never see me again.

It's the same old lady, hangin' out the wash.
Now she is wearin' a mackintosh.
She was hangin' out her wash in the middle o' the rain.
Thought New York was goin' insane.

Purty(?) little leaf lyin' on the ground,
Now you are turnin' slightly brown.
Why don't you hop back up on your tree,
Turn the color green the way y' ought 'o be?

It's the same old man, sittin' at the mill.
Mill turns around of its own free will.
With my hand in the hopper and the other in a sack,
Gents come forward and the ladies fall back.

The H. M. Rounders were an outstanding old timey music duet; very faithful to the music, but with a radically free hand to the lyrics. It's a pity they seem to be so little known, possibly a result of their drug assisted decline, culminating in that pathetic counter culture icon, The Fuggs.

Frank i.t.s.