Seeds

Alright

Chasing

Chasing memories

Something going on in your brain

That keeps chasing you

If one would say

Fucking up your memories

Someone asked me why did I do a song called

"I Woke Up in a Fucked Up America"?

Chasing

Running after you

Trying to capture you

To contain you

To control you

To make you fearful

You would get whipped and so abused

Slaves until they was buried in their graves

Or just tossed along the wayside

Massively buried

No individuality

No individuality

Sometimes coming in by the shiploads as slaves

When that was not enough for the plan

Goddamn, that was not enough for the man

Damn, that was not enough

All about the fields that had to be worked

Not only the seed that had to be sorted out and planted deep

We had to work them right or we would get our ass whipped

And whipped and whipped until the pain would not let us rest at night

Sometimes we went to bed bloody

The sheets and the spreads had images from your blood drops

Pain and pain and pain and pain

The whelps

The whippings that your body had endured

You didn't just wanna cry

You wanted to die, you wanted to die

You wanted to die right there

You wanted to die

Nobody could come and give you no relief from the pain

Nobody can come along

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months

And on over into years

Captivity for me was the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

Little Tonky McElroy didn't know nobody

Didn't know nobody

Get to see

Get to see the children being beat every day the same way

For the same damn thing

Because it was a repeat action

As you looked at the old man sitting there

Whipping and whipping and whipping and whipping

Whipping the bodies that passed along his way

Lines of boys and cries of girls

You so are afraid, you so are afraid, you so are afraid

Somebody asked me, "Do I remember?"

"Do I remember?"

I said, "Me?"

I remember

I remember the creek and the ditches

I remember

I remember this place called Horseshoe Bend

When you got there, nothing but cotton had been planted within

Cotton for many a mile

And it almost scared you to death

On one hand, it was so white and beautiful

On the other hand, you had to pick it, and pick it right

Pick that cotton

The watchers watching

The charge boys

So if you began to ran

You ran!

If you snuck out of the cotton field and ran away

They'll catch your ass and beat you

They'll beat you and beat you brutally

All day

Viciously

What you wanna run away for, boy?

The old man would ask, "What you want to run away for?"

"You had a good damn home and you wouldn't stay there"

"Now this is your home"

"This is where you get your care"

"Worthless "

"He is no damn good "

Just like they say, "You better be careful"

It was so mean

Got a whooping one day for running away

Nobody caught me but I got too hungry

I couldn't go no further

Well, I needed something to drink

I couldn't, I couldn't go no further

I was thirsty and I was hungry

And after they found you and they charge you

They put an "X" in your hair

They take the sheep shears and they'll cut an "X" in your hair

For they'll know you were a product of the Alabama Industrial School

Oh, I wish that I could rob my memory

I'd be like Midas and turn my thoughts to gold

And one day end up just being alright

Where I wouldn't do nothing to lose my soul

I try to tell my children

This brain that I have

I've given it to you all and I understand the responsibility to the truth we bear