Gram Parsons California Cotton Fields Lyrics

My driftin' mem'ry 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 run down mortgaged Oklahoma farm And then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my mama
That he finally saved enough for us to go California was his dream a paradise for he had seen
Lots of pretty girls in magazines that told him so
California cottonfields
Where labor camps were filled with varied man with broken dreams
California cottonfields as close to wealth as daddy ever came
Well, almost everything we had was sold or left behind From daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
Some folks came to say farewell and see what all we had to sell
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand
Well, the Model A was loaded down and California bound
And a change of luck was just four days away
But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver-grey
California cottonfields
Where labor camps were filled with varied man with broken dreams
California cottonfields as close to wealth as daddy ever came