Origins: Lexington Farm

Subject: Origins: Lexington Farm have lyrics need info
From: Joybell
Date: 07 Oct 03 - 08:49 PM

Does anyone know the author of the song "(Down on)Lexington Farm" ?Several singers (Bruce Jackson, Dick Berret,)were singing it in Indiana in 1962-63. We have the lyrics and tune but nothing else.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lexington Farm have lyrics need info
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Oct 03 - 02:52 AM

Hi, Joy - I don't see the song here, so I wondered if you could post the lyrics. If you can send me a MIDI, that would even be better.
It could well be that somebody can help you, but it may help if we know more than just the title.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: DTADD: Down On Lexington Farm
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Oct 03 - 06:41 AM

Can't do a MIDI, but here are the lyrics. First section is to the tune of St James Infirmary. Rest seems to be original:

I went down to meet my connection, corner of 5th & McGee
Up come a city detective, here's what he said to me:
He said, "Young man, you'll soon lose your habit
down on our Lexington farm.
Take away your needle and your dropper, boy,
Won't let that do you no harm.
There'll be rivers of morphine solution,
cocaine to dry your veins,
goofballs by the handful, and the bennies will fall like rain.

And then one day they'll release you --
they'll say your treatment's done.
Half hour later, you'll be down on Decatur,
using a bicycle pump for a gun.
He said,"Young man...etc etc"

Subject: RE: Origins: Lexington Farm have lyrics need info
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 08:38 PM

For what it's worth, I was at least able to confirm that Lexington Farm was a real place. I copied this from http://dcpi.ncjrs.org/docs/Coerced%20Treatment%20Article%20-%20Satel.doc:

Narcotics Farms

As early as 1919, when governments began reining in physician prescribing of opiates, the Narcotics Unit of the Treasury Department urged Congress to set up a series of federal narcotics farms where users could be confined and treated (Inciardi, in Leukefeld and Tims, eds., 1988). It was only in 1935, though, in response to the problem of aging addicts, that the U.S. Public Health Service opened a facility in Lexington, Kentucky. Three years later, another federal farm was established in Fort Worth, Texas. These facilities received both criminal violators and addicts who enrolled in treatment voluntarily.

The Lexington facility was a hospital-prison-sanitarium in which medical and moral approaches to treatment converged. It was located, as Jonnes has described it,


on 1,100 acres of rolling bluegrass. . . an Art Deco campus-like affair with barred windows. In its early years, Lexington was literally a working farm operated by patient-inmates with chicken hatcheries, slaughter houses, four large dairy barns, a green house and a utility barn. When not farming, inmates could work in sewing, printing or wood working shops (Jonnes, 1996, p. 111-12).

The facilities did not, however, succeed in providing a wholesome and salutary rural respite. According to Jonnes, the "effect of going to KY [as patient-inmates called the Lexington farm] for most addicts was to expand their network of addict pals." The doctors were dedicated but frustrated, often noting that their patients would likely relapse upon returning to the inner cities from which they came.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lexington Farm have lyrics need info
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 08:52 PM

Thank you Jim. My husband who learned the song back in the 1960s did know about the real Lexingtom Farm but not in so much detail. We are always seeking information about the songs we sing and we thank you for your help. It seems that the song was quite well known around Boston in the 1960s but was not sung by anyone really well known.