Lead Belly - Pick a Bale of Cotton

This time I'm gonna pick a bale of cotton
This time I'm gonna pick a bale a day
This time I'm gonna pick a bale of cotton
This time I'm gonna pick a bale a day

Chorus
O Lordy, pick a bale of cotton
O Lordy, pick a bale a day
O Lordy, pick a bale of cotton
O Lordy, pick a bale a day

Me and my wife gonna pick a bale of cotton
Me and my wife gonna pick a bale a day...

Chorus

Jump down turn around to pick a bale of cotton...
Me and my buddy...
Me and my poppa...
Me and my sister...
I'm gonna pick a, pick a, pick a...
Jump down turn around...

Esta canción de origen afroamericana fue cantada como una alegre canción de trabajo y de baile, como visto en la película "The Jerk" protagonizada por Steve Martin. Un bale, o paca de algodón pesa 226.8 kg, una cantidad imposible de reunir a mano. Lead Belly interpreta la canción en el video.

Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill

Every morning about seven o'clock
There were twenty tarriers drilling at the rock
The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still
And bear down heavy on the cast iron drill."

Chorus
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it's work all day for the sugar in you tay
Down beyond the railway
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
And blast, and fire.

The boss was a fine man down to the ground
And he married a lady six feet 'round
She baked good bread and she baked it well
But she baked it harder than the hobs of Hell.

The foreman's name was John McCann
By God, he was a blamed mean man
Last week a premature blast went off
And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff.

And when next payday came around
Jim Goff a dollar short was found
When he asked, "What for?" came this reply
"You were docked for the time you were up in the sky."

Tarriers live on work and sweat
There ain't no tarrier got rich yet
Sleep and work, then work some more
And we'll drill right through to the devil's door."

Esta es una canción estadunidense tradicional. Los tarriers de la canción, como el perro terrier que desentierra su presa, hacían hoyos en el lado de las montañas, donde luego introducían explosivos, para abrir paso para la construcción de nuevas vías de tren. Los tarriers eran mayoritareamente imigrantes irlandeses.