***BTW there is a Merle Haggard version where he sings Poor man raise the cotton and you can hear him start to laugh***
On my Bob Wills recordings, two of them have “Darkie raise the cotton, White man get the money.
The other two Bob Wills recordings have...”poor man raise the cotton, Poor man get the money.”
and ....’Little man raise the cotton, Big man get the money.”
Bob wills used to play at Cain’s Ballroom In Tulsa. I used to see his advertisement in the Tulsa World back in the 1950s and 60s.
I have those same albums plus the Columbia Anthology which is a compilation of some of the late 30’s and early 40’s recordings. I can imagine after the Civil Rights movement record companies didn’t want anything that could possibly offend anyone [hard to believe, I know] and had the lyrics arranged to remove anything potentially offensive. Ray Benson with Asleep at the Wheel also has an interesting version of Take Me Back To Tulsa. I also believe the Original Texas Playboys in the 80’s (Leon McAuliffe, Eldon Shamblin, etc.) had another version of the tune but I haven’t listened to it lately.
The version I have, I downloaded from Napster in 2000, but it goes “darkie picks the cotton.............”.