“I Wear a Pitchfork” Sheet Music (pdf).
“I Wear a Pitchfork” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: T-Bone Slim.
Tune: “When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose.”
Ah boys, this game of threshing breaks my simple, loving heart.
I labor, sweat, and smart, around a yellow cart.
And when the sun is sinking, and I think the day is done,
I find I have another thought to come:
The sun—it has no bearing on machine or me, or boss;
And still, and later still, I’m tearing profit out of loss.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
And he wears a Henry Ford.
I do the sweating and he does the fretting
While the bankers score and score.
He has his season, yet questions my reason
When I ask for winter’s board.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
He wears a Henry Ford.
Such was the sorry custom when the Wobblies took a stand
To introduce a brand—of daylight saving—and
Thus it was there came about a balmy “buffer state”
To keep the day from staying up too late.
Time has not changed your usefulness, O Wobbly band of yore—
You’re needed now, as ever, only needed damsite more.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
And he wears a Henry Ford.
I do the sweating and he does the fretting
While the bankers score and score.
He has his season, yet questions my reason
When I ask for winter’s board.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
He wears a Henry Ford.
As time is winding onward we are organized today
To have a gentle “say” about this “going” pay.
No “eight percent collectors” need butt in to set the rate—
Unless they pine to see us “celebrate.”
Time has not changed our nonchalance, amid the cares we nurse
Though Farmer John’s complaining, we are worse and worse.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
And he wears a Henry Ford.
I do the sweating and he does the fretting
While the bankers score and score.
He has his season, yet questions my reason
When I ask for winter’s board.
I wear a pitchfork—a short-handled pitchfork—
He wears a Henry Ford.
Hello, here’s yellow—a sweet “Yellow Fellow,”
Humming without a hitch;
A cute daisy Russell to make hoboes hustle,
Or a gentle Buffalo Pitts;
So neat and comely, a rumblin’ old Rumely,
Mocking a steelbound Case.
We shall not rest till the Red River Special
Lifts the mortgage off the place!