I once was a farmer
and I worked on the land
sunup to sundown
But you live by the plow
and you die by the same
The story it's often been told
Well the workin' was hard
but the living was good
and your time was your own
But how can a man
make his life on the land
When the bankers and the railroads own it all?
Soon the good life was gone
Summer's drought and winter's toll
till we were forced to leave
I rode the rails
for nigh on a year
Then we settled in a dreary factory town
It's ten cents an hour
and it's ten hours a day
and you'll never be free
From the doubts and the fears
and the life we're livin' here
with my family so far from their home
I once was a farmer
and I worked on the land
sunup to sundown
But you live by the plow
and you die by the same
The story it's often been told