All That You Need Lyrics - Streets Of Sin - Joe Ely

I been workin' on the farm 

Just me and my brother Jack 

Choppin' a sea of cotton 

'Till I thought I'd break my back 

Everything changed 

When my daddy got hurt 

Our lives were so connected 

To that brown ol' flatland dirt 

When the government man from Austin 

Come sniffin' around our land 

Askin' a bunch of questions 

That we did not understand 

There's more to farmin' cotton 

Than just tendin' to your seed 

The ones who set the policy 

Don't give a damn about our needs 

Sow the seed in the ground below 

Fall to your knees and pray real slow 

That rain will come and kiss the seed 

And bless you with all that you need 

Mama says to Jackie 

Would she bring the car around? 

She's wearin' her finest dress 

That's how I know she's goin' to town 

I wish I'd never seen that letter 

That I found there in her room 

They're sellin' the farm on the courthouse step 

This Saturday afternoon 

Me and Jack moved into town 

To a shack by the train depot 

Jack got a job as a bouncer 

At a bar on Paradise Row 

Mama got a job in the cotton gin 

Grading cotton by the bale 

She cried when a trailer full of cotton come in 

From the farm we had to sell 

Sow the seed in the ground below 

Fall to your knees and pray real slow 

That rain will come and kiss the seed 

And bless you with all that you need 

Me, I ended up in jail 

Sick of livin' on welfare 

And the hardest thing ever happened to me 

Is when mama come to visit me there 

Don't you worry your pretty little head 

I said as I buttoned my shirt 

When I get out of this iron hotel 

I'm goin' back to that dry-land dirt 

For some it's just a livin' 

But for us its our whole life 

If it kills me I'm gonna rake that dirt 

And make a livin' out of toil and strife 

The ways of the cities makes no sense 

Strapped to dependency 

I'd rather be sweatin' a-'neath a clear blue sky 

Plantin' cotton with my family 

Sow the seed in the ground below 

Fall to your knees and pray real slow 

That rain will come and kiss the seed 

And bless you with all that you need