Long Summer Day - Two Gallants

Well, all I’ve ever known is poor

Owe my skin to the country store

Owns my walls, my roof, my door

But he tells me I’m free

But I fight the will to live

Hell might take but heaven gives

It’s the only one so I’ll forgive

And I ain’t the one to grieve

And the summer day make a white man lazy

He sits on his porch killing time

I gotta work to feed my wife and baby

I work so god damn hard that it’s a crime

Well, I went down to the polling place

The white men there just laughed in my face

Saying boy, this ain’t no nigga’s race

You best get on your way

Sir, I believe I’ve got the right

Said you ain’t got nothing if you ain’t white

And I thought I said get out of sight

Well, what was I to say?

And the summer day make a white man lazy

He sits on his porch killing time

I gotta work to feed my wife and baby

I work so god damn hard that it’s a crime

When I was 'bout the age of five

Watched my daddy burned alive

They cut him low and they hung him high

Swayin' in the breeze

The last words I heard him say

Before they stole his life that day

Was forgive them lord, they gone astray

Now take me to my ease

And the summer day make a white man lazy

He sits on his porch killing time

But the summer day make a nigga feel crazy

Might make me do something out of line

Well, I dont know but I heard tell

Of a furnace below a place called hell

And who would catch me if I fell?

Who would pray for me?

But one thing I see for sure

It’s hot as hell up here I know

And the devil lives right down the road

It’s all the same to me

And a summer day make a white man feel lazy

He sits on his porch killing time

But the summer day make a nigga feel crazy

Might make me do something out of line

But if you should see my wife

Tell her that I won’t be home tonight

So dont leave on the light

I got a little buisness down the road

And If I’m dead by sunrise

Kiss my baby girl for me

It ain’t life if it ain’t free

I’ve got a mighty burden to unload