DEVIL TAKE THE FARMER is in the DT, but it is strangely formatted. This transcription may be clearer. I have checked it against a recording on Spotify, and changed a word here and there to agree with the recording.


DEVIL TAKE THE FARMER
Words and music by Dave Gordon
As sung by the Dry Branch Fire Squad on "Fertile Ground" (1989)

1. I am Corvy Swanson an' these are Swanson lands,
For pert' near a hundred and fifty years worked by Swanson hands.
Now the land boys want to buy me and I'd rather I was dead,
But hi-ho the dairy-o, the farmer's in the red.

2. When Nora Mae was livin', Lord, weren't we livin' high,
[With] sausage, steak, an' bacon; puddin', cake, an' pie?
Now when I've got a cow down, the vet knows I can't pay.
I don't even have enough to put my bones away.

CHORUS: And the weather takes its toll, and the years take your life.
The city takes the children, and the fever takes a wife.
The dry wind takes the wheat, and the bills take the beans,
And the devil take the farmer in the land of the big machines.

3. They don't know good from bad land. They don't know corn from weeds.
They don't want the houses. They only want the deeds.
They use it as a tax dodge. They use it as a shield.
With half the stuff they hand me, I could fertilize a field. CHORUS

4. [They] don't care whose home they're takin', don't care whose land they grab.
They sit out in the boilin' sun in an air-conditioned cab.
They got a button sayin' "Harvest," another sayin' "Seed."
The third one just says "Money" and it pours in while they sleep. CHORUS

5. The farmer stands alone. The farmer stands alone.
I ain't even got enough to bury my own bones.