Alabama Clay

First time he saw the ground get busted He was ten and it was 1952 His daddy worked hard from sunup to sundown And the goin' got tough behind them ol' gray mules The farm grew to be a moneymaker And the house he lived in grew up room by room The boy worked hard but soon got tired of farmin' So he slipped away one night 'neath the harvest moon His neck was red as Alabama clay But the city's call pulled him away He's got a factory job and runs a big machine He don't miss the farm or the fields of green Now the city's just a prison without fences His job is just a routine he can't stand And at night he dreams of wide open spaces Fresh dirt between his toes and on his hands Then one day a picture came inside a letter Of a young girl with a baby in her arms And the words she wrote would change his life forever So he went to raise his family on the farm His neck is red as Alabama clay Now he's goin' home this time to stay Where the roots run deep on the family tree And the tractor rolls through the fields of green His neck is red as Alabama clay Now he's goin' home this time to stay Where the roots run deep on the family tree And the tractor rolls through the fields of green His neck is red as Alabama clay