I was raised in the Sallisaw Hills
Momma stayed at home and daddy worked the fields
We was always livin' just like the rest
But back then, it was only livin' at best
I was 18, well, I left home
For a tent colony up in Colorado
Good pay for men minin' up the coal
At the end of the day, we were just diggin' holes
Oh, Roberta Jean, I don't feel much like dancin'
Wish to God you'd just leave me alone
Got the feelin' that I don't need no one around
I'm gonna go to the river, I'm gonna lay my burdens down
Then one night, I was hangin' with the gang
Half past ten and the messenger came
Daddy was a-callin' from the panhandle line
Tellin' me that my momma had died
Two months later in the Ludlow camp
The union ran deep and a strike was planned
Baby, you know how these things end
When a whisper is a shout and a handshake is a fist
Oh, Roberta Jean, I don't feel much like dancin'
Wish to God you'd just leave me alone
Got the feelin' that I don't need no one around
I'm gonna go to the river, I'm gonna lay my burdens down
(I'm gonna lay them down)
Took a bullet in the arm, and I was through with it
The death special rolled in, I just split
Gambling up your life just to work it away
Ain't worth the blood on your hands and the two-dollar pay
Took the clothes on my back and I headed out East
Working on the docks and reveling in the streets
Got mixed up with another man's wife
Was on the killing end of a Colt 45
Oh, Roberta Jean, I don't feel much like dancing
Wish to God you'd just leave me alone
Got the feeling that I don't need no one around
I'm gonna go to the river, I'm gonna lay my burdens down
Down, down
So wash me as white as the snow
As pure as the lamb
Shroud me in the cloth, oh Lord
Take me as I am, oh as I am
