Cotton Mill

Intro
  N.C.
A-boom! Chk-chk
  N.C.
A-boom! Chk-chk
        D
A-boom! Chk, chk

Verse 1
           D
Uncle Walt? Hey, Uncle Walt. Do you hear me?
G
   "What do you want, boy?"
     D
Your field hands are all gone, Uncle Walt.
                           A7
How are we gonna grow that cotton?
                         D
"Well, I don't reckon we will, son.
                                       G
I guess we'll get in touch with those fellers from New York who come down here awhile back
    D
And sell 'em those trees over there
                    A7
And I reckon we'll let 'em build a cotton mill here."
D
Well, Uncle Walt let 'em build a cotton mill there.
G
   And one day, like a giant swooped his right hand down
D
   He swept away all the pine trees
       A7                                                  D
And he built a three-story-high, red-brick, cotton-picking cotton mill.

Verse 2
             G
While he was at it, they swept away Uncle Walt too.
          D                                                       A7
He never did know much about legal things like contracts and fine print.
                      D                                                           G
I was just a kid then, and one of the earliest memories of my childhood was the loom.
                                            D
The loom, with the shuttle going back and forth, making cotton into cloth.
               D
And it sounded like:

Chorus
  D
A-boom! Chk-chk
  N.C.
A-boom! Chk-chk
        D
A-boom! Chk, chk, chk

Verse 3
D               G
1930 came along: violence, strikes.
D
   Three dollars a week just wouldn't get it.
  A7                                                            D
A plug of chewing tobacc-er, couple pounds of flour and some fatback and molasses.
               G
When they went back to work, they was making six dollars a week.
           D                                     A7
But not until Clarence Carter- Clarence was Walt Carter's boy, lived next door
       D
Not until Clarence Carter got on this newfangled thing called an elevator
       G
And it fell with him in the cotton mill.
D
   'course, they brought Clarence home.
                 A7
Then, they took him away again.
                              D
And Clarence'll never have to worry about that:

Chorus
  D
A-boom! Chk-chk
  N.C.
A-boom! Chk-chk
        D
A-boom! Chk, chk, chk

Verse 4
D
He won't hear it anymore.
D
Then there was Sarah that lived down the street.
G                                                     D
   At 14 years old, Sarah went to work in the cotton mill, breathing that lint.
                                A7
Man, it's worse than a coal mine. Six dollars a week.
D
   And every time Sarah come out of that cotton mill, she'd be coughing.
                 N.C.                    D
Something like: (*long, wheezing cough*)

Verse 5
 D
Well, the big year: 1932.
G                      D
   Roosevelt, Big Deal... New Deal.
A7                                        D
   Everybody's gonna have a fortune, like A-models and things.
D
   Another strike in the cotton mill.
G
   Machine guns on the roof
                                D
And the National Guard throwing cigarettes down like they was going out of style.
A7
   And all the young kids in the neighborhood picking 'em up and smoking 'em
                         D
When they could beat the men to 'em.

Verse 6
             D                                                  G
They finally fixed that elevator, after it fell with a National Guard lieutenant.
               D
I guess everything works out for the best after all.
    A7
And all the time we were living there
                             D
Listening day and night to that sound... that awful sound.

Chorus
  D
A-boom! Chk, chk
  D
A-boom! Chk, chk
        D
A-boom! Chk, chk, chk, chk