Billy Sol
tune: Jay Gould's Daughter
by D. Brooks

From the town of Pecos in the heart of Texas,
Came a mighty operator named Billy Sol Estes,
In a land where manipulation is the thing,
Billy Sol's the undisputed king.

Chorus:
Billy Sol, Billy Sol,
Biggest wheeler dealer of them all.

When he was just a boy the people they did say,
He'll be the greatest future farmer in the U.S.A.
The Chamber of Commerce gave him a big hand,
Said he'd be the best businessman in the land.

Billy Sol studied hard and he soon could see,
Why this is called the land of opportunity,
There are so many things that a man can do,
If he don't mind who he's doin' 'em to.

Well, Billy sol learned; what do ya think of that?
Some men can be bought with a Stetson hat.
Just how many men, only Billy Sol knows,
Will sell themselves for a suit of clothes.

If you really want to be a great capitalist,
Get some fertilizer tanks that don't exist,
And the money comes down like a shower of rain,
If you get contracts to store that government grain.

Set youyrself up with those invisible tanks,
Soon ya got fifty million bucks in nine big banks,
The profits roll in 'cause, as Billy Sol knows,
Many a man can be bought for a suit of clothes.

Some folks failed as Billy wheeled and dealed,
Mr. Marshall is laying dead out in the cotton field,
The coroner said it was suicide,
Five bullets in the back before he died.

Billy farmed the farmers, they were his meat,
He farmed the big city bankers who are hard to beat,
Washington was his very next stop,
And here he planted his biggest crop.

Assistant Labor Secretary Holleman was full of fear,
Of atarving to death on $20,000.00 a year,
So Billy said, "Here, take this thousand dollar bill,
Buy yourself some victuals and eat your fill."

Out onto the floor stepped Senator Yarborough,
Said he always knew Billy as a solid churchgoer,
"When in paying my bills it was getting late,
He put $1,700.00 in my collection plate."

Congressman Anderson has a little coal mine,
Billy thought the mine wasn't much but the stock looks fine,
Gave him $5,000.00 and said to keep the change,
That he'd send him more from back on the range.

Now President Kennedy declared, "What impropriety,
Just when I'vew got so many troubles across the sea,
I've got to fence Billy Boy in without fail,
So I'll put 75 F.B.I. men on his tail.

Now Washington's excited and they're going to invesatigate,
Try to clean up the scandal before it's too late,
But where they'll go God only knows,
Next time they need a new suit of clothes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

BILLY SOL
by Phil Ochs
tune: "JESSE JAMES"

It was in the year of 1953,
The chamber of commerce took a vote,
They picked ten rising young men and Bill was one of them,
But the government disagreed---and I quote:

Chorus)
Stand tall Billy Sol, we don't know you at all,
Take down those pictures from the wall,
We don't want to handle an agriculture scandal,
We've got to face elections in the Fall.

Billy started out with just one little lamb,
His fortune just grew and grew,
But irregularity in his share of parity,
Came to light and the charges really flew.

J.F.K. denied and Orville Freeman sighed,
He said that everyone around was fair and square,
But he was no more convincin' than Ezra Taft Benson,
As resignations cropped up everywhere.

And now I'd like to say that crime sure doesn't pay,
But if you want to make some money on the sly,
You can always rent -- the U.S. government,
It's the best one that money can buy.