100 Best Songs of the South

1. "Strange Fruit" -- Billie Holiday (1939). Atrocity becomes bitter poetry in this anti-lynching song written by a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from New York named Abel Meeropol (aka Lewis Allan). When Billie Holiday took it on, it became one of the most powerful pieces of popular music ever recorded. The chilling images are made even more horrifying by Holiday's reportorial, matter-of-fact delivery.
2. "Summertime" -- written by George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward (1935). Our favorite version is by jazz goddess Sarah Vaughan, who sings smooth and slow, capturing the pace of life in a land where time is marked by jumping fish and tall cotton.
3. "A Change Is Gonna Come" -- Sam Cooke (1964). At once fearful and hopeful, this posthumously released song captures the long-standing Southern tension between running away and standing your ground.
4. "Mississippi Goddam" -- Nina Simone (1964). A civil rights polemic fueled by generations' worth of anger.
5. "We Shall Overcome" -- Originally titled "I Shall Overcome" by Charles A. Tindley (1900); later rewritten by Guy Carawan. Its simple lyrics hardly leap from the page. But seeing and hearing a group of people sing those words -- arms crossed over their chests, hands linked together -- it becomes an enduring source of strength.
6. "Dixie" -- written by Daniel Decatur Emmett (1859). A minstrel song written by a Northerner that was later adopted by soldiers and supporters of the Confederacy. It has a past fraught with racial tension that assures continuing controversy, but the lyrics themselves are largely free of such baggage. It's all in the context.
7. "Rocky Top" -- The Osborne Brothers (1968). It sounds like a traditional bluegrass tune, but it was written by pop and country songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, the married team behind many Everly Brothers' hits. Boudleaux, a classically trained violinist, once played with the Atlanta Symphony.
8. "Rosa Parks" -- OutKast (1998). New York-spawned hip-hop takes a seat on the front porch as its country cousins Dre and Big Boi spin a wickedly melodic tale over an acoustic guitar, a harmonica and a knee slap.
9. "Georgia on My Mind" -- Ray Charles (1960). Thanks to the late, great Albany, Ga., native's wonderfully earnest delivery, this old, sweet song -- like Charles -- will forever stay on our minds.
10. "Coat of Many Colors" -- Dolly Parton (1971). A poignant tale of Parton's dirt-poor but love-rich upbringing in the East Tennessee mountains. It would have sounded weepy coming from anyone else, but Parton turns sadness into sublime beauty.

11. "Coal Miner's Daughter" -- Loretta Lynn (1971). An expression of pride, a tribute to her hard-working father and a tough-edged piece of country history.
12. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" -- The Band (1969). Told from the perspective of a sympathetic Confederate man named Virgil, the song gives defeated Southerners dignity.
13. "Grandma's Hands" -- Bill Withers (1971). Withers' weathered story about a wise elder makes us all wish we had this kind of grandma -- especially one who would scold our parents for wrongly spanking us.
14. "Sweet Home Alabama" -- Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974). Like "Dixie," this song is beloved and reviled in equal measure. For every person claiming this song defends a racist legacy, there's someone to point out the "boo, boo, boo" that shadows "in Birmingham they love the governor" and a loving tribute to an African-American bluesman ("The Ballad of Curtis Loew") that comes four songs later on the band's sophomore album, "Second Helping."
15. "Ramblin' Man" -- The Allman Brothers Band (1973). Chugging drums, classic guitar licks and lyrics about a Georgia gambler who "wound up on the wrong end of a gun."
16. "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" -- Otis Redding (1967). What new whistler doesn't attempt the bridge of this wistful classic from the soulful Dawson, Ga., native?
17. "Midnight Train to Georgia" -- Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973). Never mind that it was originally titled "Midnight Plane to Houston," that it was first recorded by Cissy Houston and it begins "Mmmmm, L.A. ...," there's simply no denying this song, from these Atlanta natives, for this list.
18. "Carolina in My Mind" -- James Taylor (1968). Not just the name of an exhibit in a Chapel Hill, N.C., museum -- after all, the singer/songwriter is one of its native sons -- this makes you "see the sunshine ... feel the moonshine ... just like a friend of mine."
19. "The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)" -- Stephen Foster (1851). Who says Florida's not part of the South?
20. "Rainy Night in Georgia" -- Brook Benton/Tony Joe White. This White-penned tune is one of the most perfect musical expressions of melancholy, with the protagonist so down he feels like it's raining all over the world.

21. "Tennessee" -- Arrested Development (1992). The same year most of the hip-hop world fell under the spell of Dr. Dre's gangster rap classic "The Chronic," this Atlanta-based group in overalls conjured a thoughtful, rickety antidote from the other coast.
22. "Love Shack" -- The B-52's (1989). A bouncy trip down the Atlanta Highway that leads to a hopping house party beneath a rusted tin roof.
23. "Nutbush City Limits" -- Ike and Tina Turner (1973). The sound of a woman determined to pave her golden avenue of dreams out of the red dirt roads of her beginning.
24. "Outfit" -- Drive-By Truckers (2003). A poignant bit of father-to-son advice: "Don't call what you're wearing an outfit/Don't ever say your car is broke/Don't worry 'bout losing your accent/A Southern man tells better jokes."
25. "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home?" -- Joe South (1969). You could probably fill this list with tunes about exiled Southerners longing for home, but few capture that lonesome homesickness with the potency packed into a single line of this one: "All God's children get weary when they roam."
26. "Hey Porter" -- Johnny Cash (1951). A man traveling on a Southbound train is just about dying to cross the Mason-Dixon Line.
27. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" -- Hank Williams (1949). If you've ever been way out in the rural South, especially late at night, you know just how the man feels.
28. "Back Water Blues" -- Bessie Smith (1927). This flood story is so vivid, you can practically feel the water rising up to your waist.
29. "I Can't Stand the Rain" -- Ann Peebles (1971). Smoky and deeply Southern Memphis soul from a woman who has been called the female Al Green.
30. "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" -- The Charlie Daniels Band (1979). Southern music is rife with characters beating (or occasionally joining) Satan. This time, the fiddler triumphs.

31. "Rednecks" -- Randy Newman (1974). A scathing anti-racism satire and the lead track on "Good Old Boys," a superb concept album about the South.
32. "Get Low" -- Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz featuring the Ying Yang Twins (2002). As embarrassing as it is easy to sing along to, this naughty nursery rhyme firmly established the hip-hop subgenre now known as crunk music.
33. "Seminole Wind" -- John Anderson (1992). A heartfelt paean to the damaged Florida wetlands by one of the countriest of country artists.
34. "Elevators (Me and You)" -- OutKast (1996). The best song ever to mention riding MARTA.
35. "Blue Yodel No. 1" -- Jimmie Rodgers (1927). One of country music's earliest million-sellers captures the mixture of honky-tonk and holiness that runs through all of the music of the first inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
36. "My Home Is in the Delta" -- Muddy Waters (1964). The blues master's voice is so booming that it seems to have been recorded in a boxcar.
37. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" -- Bill Monroe (1947). A timeless piece of Americana, sung with a voice sharp enough to cut glass.
38. "Crossroad Blues" -- Robert Johnson (1936). As if the story of the father of the blues selling his soul on the crossroads to be a better guitarist weren't haunting enough, there's this.
39. "My Clinch Mountain Home" -- Carter Family (1929). The Clinch Mountains of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee are the cradle of country music, the home territory of both the Carter Family and the Stanley Brothers.
40. "Love and Happiness" -- Al Green (1972). That opening stomp on what sounds like a shack floor, that wailing organ, that bluesy strum of the rhythm guitar, that bone-shaking moan -- that's Southern.

41. "Comin' From Where I'm From" -- Anthony Hamilton (2003). Stick-to-your-ribs soul from the North Carolina native who gave us "Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens."
42. "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" -- Bob Dylan (1966). A seven-minute tear of Southern surrealism featuring railroad gin, a senator's wedding, a pushy dancer and a cursing preacher.
43. "In the Pines" -- Leadbelly (1944). A haunting tale from a folk-blues legend, sometimes known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" or "Black Girl." Its origins are unclear, but most sources trace it to the Southern Appalachians as far back as the 1870s.
44. "Ode to Billie Joe" -- Bobbie Gentry (1967). The sound is as hazy and humid as a Delta summer, and folks still puzzle over what the narrator and Billie Joe McAllister were tossing into the muddy water beneath the Tallahatchie Bridge and why Billie Joe soon followed.
45. "Southern Hospitality" -- Ludacris (2000). A "mouth full of platinum" eating "dirty South bread ... Catfish fried up/Dirty South fed!" Come on now -- you can almost smell the region.
46. "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" -- Vicki Lawrence (1973). Carol Burnett's sidekick came into her own with this lone hit. But talk about dim -- shortly after her husband wrote this curiously bouncy murder tale, they divorced.
47. "Harper Valley PTA" -- Jeannie C. Riley (1968). The story song and gossip are both Southern staples, and this Tom T. Hall song tosses some well-aimed boulders at busybodies who live in very fragile glass houses.
48. "Goin' Down South" -- R.L. Burnside (1968). Recorded by Atlanta folklorist George Mitchell, a young Burnside heads toward a place where "chilly wind don't blow."
49. "Come on in My Kitchen" -- Robert Johnson (1936-37). Though originally composed and performed by blues giant Johnson, he never made the title's five words sound as sensuous as Cassandra Wilson managed on her 1993 album "Blue Light 'Til Dawn.'"
50. "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" -- Flatt and Scruggs (1949). Not only a bluegrass landmark, but the theme to the epic gangster flick "Bonnie and Clyde."

51. "Moon River" -- Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini (1961). It's forever identified as the theme from the Audrey Hepburn film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," but it was written by Savannah native Mercer (with Henry Mancini) and inspired by the river that ran behind his house on Burnside Island. It's now called Moon River.
52. "Graceland" -- Paul Simon (1986). A New Yorker gets road trip fever, heading through the Delta and up to Elvis' house.
53. "Statesboro Blues" -- Blind Willie McTell (1928). Some recite prayers, but at Duane Allman's funeral, his fellow Allman band members performed this Blind Willie McTell original -- with Dickey Betts playing Duane's guitar. (After all, it was the song Duane played over and over again when he was teaching himself how to play the bottleneck slide guitar.)
54. "Po Folks" -- Nappy Roots (2002). Underrated Kentucky hip-hop on a favorite Southern theme: poverty.
55. "Hickory Wind" -- The Byrds/Gram Parsons (1968). A wistful ode by the Waycross-raised godfather of alt-country that begins with the simple yet evocative, "In South Carolina, there are many tall pines." Recorded during his short tenure with the Byrds, which produced the seminal country-rock classic "Sweetheart of the Rodeo."
56. "My Window Faces the South" -- Bob Wills (1946). Another jaunty tale of an exile longing for the South, but he's "never frownin' or down in the mouth" because at least his window faces south.
57. "Alabama" -- Neil Young (1972). An outspoken Canadian tries to save a U.S. state.
58. "Greenville" -- Lucinda Williams (1998). Williams' distinctive twang sounds both strong and regretful as she dismisses a lover with anger issues. Fed up, she tells him to "just go on back to Greenville."
59. "Free Bird" -- Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973). It might be an overplayed piece of Southern rock history, but it's still a bonafide classic.

60. "Southern Nights" -- Glen Campbell (1977). Alright jokester, get that wicked mug shot out of your head a minute, and picture "Sou-thern skies/Have you eee-ver noticed Sou-thern skies?/It's precious beauty lies just beyond the eye/It goes running through your soul?"
61. "Orange Blossom Special," written by Ervin T. Rouse (1938-1939). A fella named Chubby Wise sometimes gets co-credit for this support beam in the house of Americana. For those inclined to learn the whole story, there's a book called "Orange Blossom Boys: The Untold Story of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise And The World's Most Famous Fiddle Tune."
62. "Down in the Boondocks" -- Billy Joe Royal/Joe South (1965). Billy Joe Royal took it into the Top 10, but this starcrossed-lovers-gone-country tale was written by under-heralded Atlantan Joe South.
63. "On and On" -- Erykah Badu (1997). Badu's voice here reminds us of Billie Holiday's muddy, weary twang.
64. "Sweet Southern Comfort" -- Buddy Jewell (2003). Well lookee here, the "Nashville Star" winner done sung himself a minor classic.
65. "South of Cincinnati" -- Dwight Yoakam (1986). A mournful country lament from Yoakam's debut album, "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc.," about lovers divided by the Ohio River, pride and 14 long, lonely years.
66. "Blue Sky" -- Allman Brothers (1972). As much a calming meditation as it is a Southern rock melody, this tune was written by Dickie Betts for his then-girlfriend, Sandy "Bluesky" Wabegijig. It was also the first Allmans' song that Betts sang lead on.
67. "Ugly" -- Bubba Sparxxx (2001). Undeniable "Bubba chatter" over beat king Timbaland's percussion equaled Athens' first major entry onto the hip-hop scene.
68. "Welcome to Atlanta" -- Jermaine Dupri featuring Ludacris (2001). Not a great song out of context, but ever since this anthem announced ATL as the place to be, the city's hip-hop scene has never looked back.
69. "Oh, Atlanta" -- Alison Krauss (1995). Originally recorded by British rockers Bad Company and written by guitarist Mick Ralphs, this song was resuscitated by Krauss' crystalline soprano and her strangely twisted pronunciation of "Georgia."

70. "Deep Down in Florida" -- Muddy Waters (1977). You can almost feel the humidity.
71. "That's What I Like About the South" -- Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (1942). A rhyming dictionary gone wonderfully haywire, where "Alabamy" goes with "mammy" and "hammy," and "shakey" with "mistakey."
72. "Dixie Chicken" -- Little Feat (1973). A woman who's been around the block several times takes our narrator for a ride. He's suckered in by her seductive refrain: "If you'll be my Dixie Chicken, I'll be your Tennessee Lamb." Bandleader Lowell George was born and raised in Southern California, but you'd never know it from Southern-fried tunes like this.
73. "Tennessee Waltz" -- Patti Page (1950). Now 78, Oklahoman Page was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and this sweet and simple tune, penned by Country Music Hall of Famer Pee Wee King and Tennessee native Redd Stewart, was her biggest hit.
74. "Southern Accents" -- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1985). Sure, Petty became a national star. But this song takes you back to his countrified roots.
75. "Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya" -- Poison Clan (1992). A strip club classic -- surprise, surprise.
76. "Patches" -- Clarence Carter (1970). One of those weepers about being poor that's measured not by grades, not by stars, but by the number of handkerchiefs you use while listening to it.
77. "Cell Therapy" -- Goodie Mob (1995). Among the first Southern hip-hop songs to insist that this region's artists know just as much about storytelling as booty-shaking.
78. "Betty Lonely" -- Vic Chesnutt (1995). Critically beloved Athens singer-songwriter Chesnutt's sad account of a woman living "in a duplex of stucco on the north bank of a brackish river" who "will always think in Spanish" is so Floridian that you can feel the heat and humidity and see the Spanish moss.
79. "No Depression" --Uncle Tupelo (1990). An Illinois trio messes with an A.P. Carter song, and in the process helps create the punk-roots sub-genre known as alternative country.
80. "Nann" -- Trick Daddy (1998). The title is a generations-old slang word ("You don't know nann about great Southern songs!"), and the song an unofficial introduction to sassy pin-up Trina, who conducts a hilariously bitter exchange with underappreciated Miami rapper Trick Daddy.

81. "Return of the Grievous Angel" -- Gram Parsons (1973). The Grievous Angel -- aka late Waycross-reared alt-country godfather Parsons -- heads west to grow up with the country, but the 20,000 roads he travels all lead right back home.
82. "Birmingham" -- Randy Newman (1974). An ode to "the greatest city in Alabam'," featuring factory work, a wife named Marie and a big black dog named Dan.
83. "Blackbird" -- Dionne Farris (1994). With just a countrified acoustic guitar backing her, this outstanding Atlanta vocalist transforms the original -- by four white British guys better known as the Beatles -- into a full symphony of inspiration for black women everywhere.
84. "Evangeline" -- Emmylou Harris (1981). The Band's Robbie Robertson wrote this tale of a wronged woman standing "on the banks of the mighty Mississippi," but Harris infused it with such epic grandeur that it became hers.
85. "High Water (for Charley Patton)" -- Bob Dylan (2001). An apocalyptic, banjo-driven companion piece to Bessie Smith's flood lament "Back Water Blues."
86. "Just Kickin' It" -- Xscape (1993). The loping "Let's Do It Again" sample and the harmonies this foursome generate sound like Sunday mornings in church and Sunday afternoons in the rocking chair all at the same time.
87. "Georgia Rhythm" -- Atlanta Rhythm Section (1976). The "band-on-the-road" genre gets a Southern twist as the hometown boys pass around the bottle, crank up their trusty Gibsons and tear up another town.
88. "If Heaven Ain't a Lot Like Dixie" -- Hank Williams Jr. (1982). Sample lyric: "If they don't have a Grand Ole Opry, like they do in Tennessee/Just send me to Hell or New York City, it'd be about the same to me."
89. "Wait" -- Ying Yang Twins (2005). Down-South lasciviousness from two wild, gold-toothed guys who -- with this song -- finally earned applause from serious hip-hop critics.
90. "Knoxville Girl" -- The Louvin Brothers (1956). It doesn't get much more Southern than a murder ballad delivered by the goosebump-raising harmonies of these Alabama siblings.

91. "Red Clay Halo" -- Gillian Welch (2001). A country girl damns the dirt that stains her clothes and cakes under her nails.
92. "In Da Wind" -- Trick Daddy, Cee-Lo and Big Boi (2002). Try as they might to deny it, can self-professed "sneaky ol' freaky ol' geechee ? collard green, neckbone-eatin" guys be anything other than Southern?
93. "Memphis" -- Chuck Berry (1959). Rock 'n' roll was born in the South, and Chuck Berry is one of its daddies. In this song, he's 6-year-old Marie's daddy, trying to phone his little girl who lives "just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge."
94. "Stars Fell on Alabama" -- written by Mitchell Parish and Frank Perkins (1934). Lazy and luxurious, like a night spent lying in the grass, gazing skyward. Billie Holiday gave us one of the best versions.
95. "People Everyday" -- Arrested Development (1992). One of hip-hop's most eloquent discussions on some of the ignorance in hip-hop culture.
96. "Can't You See" -- Marshall Tucker Band (1973). The best Southern rock tune of the early '70s that wasn't an Allman Brothers Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd track. An unforgettable acoustic guitar riff, the bracing sting of electric guitar and a forlorn flute send this mean-woman blues song soaring into the mountains.
97. "Chattahoochee" -- Alan Jackson (1992). Proudly corny country.
98. "Git Up, Git Out" -- OutKast with Goodie Mob (1994). Before it was sampled in Macy Gray's first single, "Do Something," this was an underground hip-hop favorite -- your mama's admonitions set to music.
99. "Maps and Legends" -- R.E.M. (1985). The Athens quartet's first few albums are as saturated with Southern imagery as the kudzu-draped cover of the band's full-length debut, "Murmur." This sweetly swaying tune, dedicated to Summerville artist the Rev. Howard Finster, is from album No. 3, "Fables of the Reconstruction."
100. "Mistress" -- Caroline Herring (2003). A heart-wrenching song told from the perspective of a slave whose master -- and lover-- is dying.

These 10 tunes barely scratch the surface of the Lone Star state's whopping contribution to popular music, but they're definitely some of our favorites.

"Amarillo by Morning" -- George Strait. Texas has given us more than its fair share of great country artists -- George Jones, Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, Hank Thompson, for starters. This lovely travelogue, narrated by a rodeo cowboy yearning for home, just barely wins out over Tubb's "Waltz Across Texas" for a spot on the list.

"The Yellow Rose of Texas" -- Gene Autry. A 19th-century beauty that's been recorded by a wide range of artists, but Texas-born singing cowboy Autry's always good for a classic take.

"San Antonio Rose" -- Bob Wills/Patsy Cline. Wills' original version is one of western swing's genuine classics, but Cline's voice did wonderful things to an already beautiful tune.

"Deep in the Heart of Texas" -- Gene Autry. We're suckers for hand claps. Why Autry's version? See "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

"That's Right (You're Not From Texas)" -- Lyle Lovett. Lyle's Georgia girl is foolish enough to ask why he's always going on about Texas. By the time the next verse rolls around, our view of that girl is in the rear view mirror as Mr. Lovett speeds away.

"My Mind Playing Tricks on Me" -- Geto Boys. Before the South was officially the "Dirty South," Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill proved that hip-hop wasn't all about New York and Los Angeles with this leisurely paced tale of urban paranoia.

"Como la Flor" -- Selena. Tejano is a singularly Texan blend of Mexican folk and American country. The late queen of the form, gunned down in 1995 as she was on a spectacular rise to stardom, is at her best on this tune.

"Texas Me" -- Sir Douglas Quintet. When our protagonist roams, he begins to wonder what happened to "that man inside, the real old Texas me."

"She Never Spoke Spanish to Me" --Butch Hancock/Joe Ely. Spanish is a loving tongue, as the old song goes, but in this Mexican-flavored heart-tugger, our hero is never addressed by his beloved in her native tongue.

"Texas Flood" -- Stevie Ray Vaughan. Vaughan revived this fiery blues tune from the '50s by one of his lesser-known influences, Larry Davis, and made it the title cut of his 1993 debut album.

You could come up with a list of 100 great songs from Louisiana , but here are 10 favorites we couldn't live without.

"Do Whatcha Wanna" -- the Rebirth Brass Band. A delightful reminder of New Orleans as we'd like to remember it.

"Great Balls of Fire" -- Jerry Lee Lewis. The barrelhouse rocker that shook nerves and rattled brains.

"Hot Tamale Baby" -- Clifton Chenier. There are so many dance-inducing songs by the king of zydeco that it was tough to choose. This fast-paced scorcher was written by Chenier, but is probably better known from versions by Marcia Ball and Buckwheat Zydeco.

"Iko Iko" -- the Dixie Cups. Among the world's most perfect two-minute songs, it sounds like schoolgirls messing around on the playground, captured on tape by accident.

"Lady Marmalade" -- LaBelle. We meet 'Marmalade' down in ole New Orleans, strutting herself on the scene. But it's LaBelle's tart and tangy description of the lady of the evening that really impresses the itchy, gitchy, ya-ya out of us.

"Johnny B. Goode" -- Chuck Berry. Actually, Chuck B. Goode -- great even -- on the guitar on this one.

"Potato Head Blues" -- Louis Armstrong. Woody Allen's character in "Manhattan" cited this song as one reason life's worth living. He wasn't wrong.

"Walking to New Orleans" -- Fats Domino. The deliberate stride of this '50s classic -- and the big man's distinctive accent -- would tell you where it originated even if the title was "Walking to New York."

"When The Saints Go Marching In" -- widely credited to Katherine Purvis and James Black. The rare song that has been recorded by Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Pete Fountain, Mahalia Jackson, Earl Scruggs and Tiny Tim.

Some good picks, but biased to include rap music.

Missing from the list: "Are you from Dixie?", "T for Texas", "Bonnie Blue", "Mountain Dew", Doc Watson, Bellamy Bros, and others.

Feel Free to add to or correct the list.

Too many of the list are trashing the South!

My vote for the top song has to be Mrs. Reb's favorite - Bonnie Blue Flag. However, I believe Maryland, My Maryland deserves at least an honorable mention.

should be something from Flatt and Scruggs in there too

they've got Flatt and Scruggs at #50 with Foggy mountain Breakdown. Pretty good list, although Randy Newman should never be on any best of list.

Four of the top five, racialist anthems trashing the South. Three of which, including #1 about lynching I never heard of.

Typical Multicultural garbage.

Missing perhaps the single greatest southern song ever recorded, performed, or even possible.

Paul Robson
SHowboat, 1936

"Let me go ´way from this Mississippi.
Let me go ´way from the white man boss.
Show me that stream, called the river Jordan.
That’s the old stream that I long to cross.

Old Man River,
that Old Man River,
he must know something
but he don’t say nothing.
He just keeps rolling.
He keeps on rolling along.

He don’t plant tatoes.
He don’t plant cotton.
And them that plants them
is soon forgotten.
But Old Man River,
he just keeps rolling along.

You and me,
we sweat and strained.
Body all achening, racked with pain.
Tote that barge
and lift that bail.
Get a little drunk then we’ll land in jail.

I get weary
And sick of trying.
I’m tired of living
and scared of dying,
but Old Man River,
he just keeps rolling along".

I'd love to find an MP3 of that, it sends a chill up my spine every time.

Furthermore, the fact that not one Ronnie Milsap song is on this list makes me question it even more. "Smoky Mountain Rain" is the first that comes to mind...

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