Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven, I had a little farm and I called that heaven. Well, the prices up and the rain come down, And I hauled my crops all into town -- I got the money, bought clothes and groceries, Fed the kids, and raised a family.
Rain quit and the wind got high, And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky. And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine, And I poured it full of this gas-i-line -- And I started, rockin' an' a-rollin', Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.
Way up yonder on a mountain road, I had a hot motor and a heavy load, I's a-goin' pretty fast, there wasn't even stoppin', A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn poppin' -- Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind, There was a feller there, a mechanic feller, Said it was en-gine trouble.
Way up yonder on a mountain curve, It's way up yonder in the piney wood, An' I give that rollin' Ford a shove, An' I's a-gonna coast as far as I could -- Commence coastin', pickin' up speed, Was a hairpin turn, I didn't make it.
Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you, The fiddles and the guitars really flew. That Ford took off like a flying squirrel An' it flew halfway around the world -- Scattered wives and childrens All over the side of that mountain.
We got out to the West Coast broke, So dad-gum hungry I thought I'd croak, An' I bummed up a spud or two, An' my wife fixed up a tater stew -- We poured the kids full of it, Mighty thin stew, though, You could read a magazine right through it. Always have figured That if it'd been just a little bit thinner, Some of these here politicians Coulda seen through it.
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day, Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line. 'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl, They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find Now, the police at the port of entry say, "You're number fourteen thousand for today."
Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi, Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee. California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi.
You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm, Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea. Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are, Better take this little tip from me. 'Cause I look through the want ads every day But the headlines on the papers always say:
If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi, Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee. California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi.
