Here is the whole thing put together, after another ten years. (I came here looking for a different song actually called SWEET LORRAINE. Don't worry; I have the lyrics; I was wondering where to post them.) I checked these words against the recording on Spotify.


NOT SO SWEET MARTHA LORRAINE
Words and music by Joe McDonald
As recorded by Country Joe & The Fish on "Electric Music for the Mind and Body" (1967)

She hides in an attic concealed on a shelf
Behind volumes of literature based on herself
And runs across the pages like some tiny elf
Knowing that it's hard to find
Stuff way back in her mind;
Winds up spending all of her time
Tryin' to memorize every line—
Sweet Lorraine, ah, sweet Lorraine.

Sweet lady of death wants me to die
So she can come sit by my bedside and sigh
And wipe away the tears from all my friends' eyes,
Then softly she will explain
Just exactly who was to blame
For causin' me to go insane
And fin'lly blow out my brains—
Sweet Lorraine, ah, sweet Lorraine.

Well, you know it's a shame and a pity
You were raised up in the city
And you never learned nothin' 'bout country ways,
Ah, 'bout country ways.

The joy of life she dresses in black
With celestial secrets engraved in her back
And her face keeps flashin' that she's got the knack,
But you know, when you look into her eyes,
All she's learned she's had to memorize,
And the only way you'll ever get her high
Is to let her do her thing and then watch you die—
Sweet Lorraine, ah, sweet Lorraine.

Now, she's the one who gives us all those magical things
And reads us stories out of the I Ching,
Then she passes out a whole new basket of rings
That, when you put on your hand,
Makes you one of the angel band
And gives you the power to be a man,
But what it does for her you never quite understand—
Sweet Lorraine, ah, sweet Lorraine.

Well, you know that it's a shame and a pity
You were raised up in the city
And you never learned nothin' 'bout country ways,
Ah, 'bout country ways,
Ah, 'bout country ways
Yeah, 'bout country ways. FADE