Gone are the days
Joseph Lee Cole was Papa's hired hand
Just like one of the family, though a black man
Why Joseph, I called him Joe Lee
Why he's just as much my kin as my kin was to me
Joe Lee and me running through the South
Pastor Joe's gonna teach me how to fish the creek
With nothing but a pole and a bent safety pin
We brought home a heaping mess of catfish
Mama brought up them catfish
Stirred up those puppies we had
Till we could hold them all
Then we stressed out beneath the big old tree
And watched the catfish
Watch the world grow
Me and Joe
Joe Lee and me
Joe Lee hung a tar in the big old tree
Where I swung away my summer days in
Then he whittled me a top from a chunk of old wood
And he learned me how to spin
He tied a button to the end of a string
He showed me how to put my wrist and let it go
Oh, Joe was always doing favors for me
And I tried to help Joe
Joseph, I called good old Joe Lee
Now at the supper it sit on the front porch
Serenaded by the frogs and the crickets
And the gentle summer breeze
Flowing through the pine trees
Playing tag-to-tag with grass tickets
And in the summer breeze






Joe turned on his soul
That harmonica he sure could blow
Good old Joe
Oh, Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee
Joe Lee fell out from the summer heat
Papa had to bring him in from the fields
It wasn't ninety degrees in the shade
But old Joe Lee broke it out
With a chill
Joe Lee called me to his bedside
He said, I done wrote my last row
I hear the gentle voices calling
Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee
Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee
Joe Eeesen called good old Joe Lee

Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee


Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee


Joseph Lee called good old Joe Lee
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