If I bring you home to mama, She'll say, "Just what we need another mouth to feed." And then she'll look at you and mumble, "I can't stand to look at you." And if I ask the neighbor woman to come and help, She'll show up in curlers, hair uncombed, in a nightgown with a baby in her arms and a bottle of beer in her hand. She'll sit in my kitchen sipping the beer, And look at you with her lips curled in a sneer. She'll look at me with a blank stare, And ask, "What have we got that old thing to bring home?" My mother and my wife they don't want me to have you, And there's nothing left to do except make up my mind. There's a man at work who wants you for his wife, And has given me ten dollars if I'll let you go. He's a welder by trade and makes good wages, But he says if you don't want him you can turn him down. He wants children, he wants a wife, He wants to buy things for the house and to fill it with life. And it's not a question of religion, or even race, He just wants a good little wife who will cook his food and sew his clothes. So there's no need to sit and mope around the place, For I can tell him "No!" without getting in a fuss. I'll just give you to him for a Christmas present, And maybe he'll be kind to you and buy you things to eat. And maybe you'll fall in love with him and forget about me, And if you are happy, I'll be happy too. And maybe if he wants to marry you, I'll give you away at the wedding here tonight. Your Daddy's Gonna Buy You A Mockingbird "Your Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird..." Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, as he set out across the city, Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, as he walked the streets of the city, Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, 'I'll buy you a mockingbird.' Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, as he set out across the city, Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, as he walked the streets of the city, Said your Daddy to Mommy one day, 'I'll buy you a mockingbird.' You can go out on a clear night and see him sitting on a limb, You can go out on a clear night and see him on the limb of the tree. You can go out on a clear night and see him flying from tree to tree, You can go out on a clear night and see him flying from tree to tree. He's a great big bird, an' he has wings as red as blood, He's a great big bird, an' he has wings as red as blood. He's a great big bird, an' he has wings as red as blood, You can go out on a clear night and see him flying from tree to tree. Your Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring, pretty as a ring of gold, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring, pretty as a ring of gold. Your Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring, pretty as a ring of gold, You can go out on a clear night and see it shinin' in the street. You can go out on a clear night and see it shinin' in the street. Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steamboat an' a railroad, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steam engine an' a train, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steam engine an' a train. You can go out on a clear night and see it in the street, You can go out on a clear night and see it in the street, You can go out on a clear night and see it in the street, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steamboat an' a railroad. Why did they sing that song? I don't know. It seems like all the words are nonsense rhymes and it doesn't make sense. But anyway, he's singing, 'A man is gonna buy you a mocking bird', and she comes along, and you could tell she was interested in buying a mockingbird, so you go over to your little song book, to find the other verse to the song. So, you say, 'Well, Mommy, listen to this, it's got something to do with buying a little bird, a mocking bird, here, look.' Now, he was singing, 'Why did they sing that song, Mommy? Why did they sing that song? Why did they sing that song?', I told you this before, you know, about, where the song came from. I'm telling you this here now for the very first time. This is the first time this little verse is being said on the radio. This isn't new. It was a great big bird, an' it has wings as red as blood, It was a great big bird, an' it had wings as red as blood. It was a great big bird, an' it had wings as red as blood, Why did they sing that song? I don't know. All the other verses just didn't make any sense. But there was some kind of crazy poetry going on. And the lyrics just didn't make any sense, and you weren't sure that they were gonna buy her the bird, they were singing a love song. And that's what they did sing. They used to say, 'Ah... he wants to marry you.' And they sang all this crazy stuff, and finally, they said: You can go out on a clear night and see it shinin' in the street, You can go out on a clear night and see it shinin' in the street, You can go out on a clear night and see it shinin' in the street, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steamboat an' a railroad, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steam engine an' a train. Now he was singing, 'Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steam engine an' a train', 'Mommy, it says here, look, Your Daddy's gonna buy you a steam engine an' a train', and of course, if you're interested, she says, 'Well, that's all right, see if you can get him to come here', so he's singing, 'I'll come to you, my darling', and so on. Now you know, I don't know what they were thinking about. I don't know if he even knew that he was singing that song. And I think he made up the lines himself, I don't know. Maybe he had a little help from the other fellows, or the band, and he would sing it. But, it's kind of a cute song. You go out on a clear night, and you see the moon shining in the sky, and it was just what they had been doing all evening. And here's where it gets interesting. It doesn't matter what the song says. If you really want to understand it, you have to let the words go and just listen to the music. Now, I know it seems like a crazy song. You can't make sense of it. But if you listen to the music, you will hear a secret message. And the secret message of this song is that you're gonna be a slave. You'll be somebody's wife, somebody's man, or you'll be somebody's little baby, but that somebody's gonna be in control of your life. You're gonna be somebody's property. And, the singer's actually giving you the idea that you're gonna be somebody's slave. He talks about buying you a great big bird, but he's talking about selling you into slavery. So, you have to look at the whole picture, not just listen to a bunch of little words. But when you look at the words, you can understand what they're saying, because they have some kind of relation to each other. The music has a secret message. The music says, you'll be somebody's slave. So, if you see the words and you hear the music, it will make a lot more sense to you. You can start to see it's all about slavery. It's not about love. It's about slavery. He's singing, 'A man is gonna buy you a mocking bird', and he'll pay you with his blood, by killing his other birds. And you may think about this as you're driving down the street today, if somebody offers you a mocking bird for sale. It's like a little signpost that somebody put up, you know, you think you're getting a baby bird for free, and he gives you the little baby bird and then he sticks a knife into its back. And then, you go home to your wife, and she says, 'Oh, he loves me, he really loves me.' So, you go back to the gas station and offer