redfirecracker | Apr. 9th, 2008

This song gives me the chills, just like The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It is seriously creepy.

DECORATION DAY - The Drive-By Truckers

It’s Decoration Day.
And I’ve a mind to roll a stone on his grave.
But what would he say.
“Keeping me down, boy, won’t keep me away”.

It’s Decoration Day.
And I knew the Hill Boys would put us away,
but my Daddy wasn’t afraid.
He said, “We’ll fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.”

I never knew how it all got started
a problem with Holland before we were born
and I don’t know the name of that boy we tied down
and beat till he just couldn’t walk anymore.
But I know the caliber in Daddy’s chest
and I know what Holland Hill drives.
The state let him go, but I guess it was best
cause nobody needs all us Lawsons alive.

Daddy said one of the boys had come by
the Lumber Man’s favorite son.
He said, “Beat him real good but don’t dare let him die
and if you see Holland Hill run."
Now I said, “They ain’t give us trouble no more
that we ain’t brought down on ourselves.”
But a chain on my back and my ear to the floor
and I’ll send all the Hill Boys to hell.

It’s Decoration Day
and I’ve got a family in Mobile Bay
and they’ve never seen my Daddy’s grave.
But that don’t bother me, it ain’t marked anyway.
Cause I got dead brothers in Lauderdale south
and I got dead brothers in east Tennessee.
My Daddy got shot right in front of his house
he had noone to fall on but me.

It’s Decoration Day
and I’ve got a mind to go spit on his grave.
If I was a Hill, I’d have put him away
and I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.
I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.
I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.

Lyrics and Music by Jason Isbell
© 2002 House of Fame Music (BMI)