California Cottonfields (Dallas Frazier/Earl Montgomery)


My drifting memory goes back to the spring of '43
When I was just a child in mama's arms
My daddy plowed the ground and prayed that some day we could leave
This rundown mortgaged Oklahoma farm

And then one night I heard my daddy saying to my mom
That he'd finally saved enough to go
California was his dream a paradise for he had seen
Lots of pretty girls in magazines that told him so

California cotton fields
where labor camps were filled with worried men with broken dreams
California cotton fields,
As close to wealth as daddy ever came


Almost everything we had was sold or left behind
From my daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
Some folks came to say farewell and see what we had to sell
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand

Well the model A was loaded down and California bound
And the change of luck was just four days away
But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
Was when his dark hair tuned to silver gray

California cotton fields
where labor camps were filled with worried men with broken dreams
California cotton fields,
As close to wealth as daddy ever came


Gram Parsons & Fallen Angels - Live 1973
Grievous Angel