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[Verse 1]
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My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43
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When I was just a child in mama's arms
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My daddy plowed the ground and prayed that some day we could leave
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This run down mortgaged Oklahoma farm
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And then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my mom
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That he finally saved enough to go
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California was his dream, a paradise for he had seen
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Lots of pretty girls in magazines that told him so
[Chorus]
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California cotton fields
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Where labor camps are filled with worried men and broken dreams
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California cotton fields
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As close to wealth as daddy ever came
[Interlude Riff]
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[Solo]
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[Verse 2]
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Well, almost everything we had was sold or left behind
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From my daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
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Some folks came to say farewell and see what all we had to sell
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Some just came to shake my daddy's hand
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Oh, the Model A was loaded down and California bound
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And a change of luck was just four days away, yeah
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But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
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Was swimmin' dark hair turned to silver grey
[Chorus]
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California cotton fields
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Where labor camps are filled with worried men and broken dreams
Bb Eb F
California cotton fields
Eb F Bb
As close to wealth as daddy ever came
