Calico Indians Lyrics - Sister Kinderhook - Rasputina

Oh how we used to hate the sight 

Of the evil rent collector coming in the night 

Got to tied for 40 bushels, but it don't seem right 

Up to the manor house to pay the Great Patroon 

We had taken our wilderness 

And turned the Earth to bounty by the rake's caress 

Never owning what we tilled below the crescent moon 

Up to the manor house to pay the Great Patroon 

The sheriff was about to sell the cows 

Or otherwise extort the rent 

So they met in barns and in out of the way places 

To scheme all night on how to get the rent 

What do you wear for civil war in 1844 

In upstate New York? 

What do you wear for civil war in 1844 

In upstate New York? 

These Indians wore Calico dresses 

They were belted at the waist 

Red flannel pantaloons or 

Those masks ..... looking things 

With fringe around the neck 

Horns upon their forehead 

Course animal hair put on for a beard 

At the pow-wow among the grotesque 

The chief wore a striped calico young lady's dress 

Blow on the tin dinner horn over the valley 

Call all the formerly normal men to revolt and rally 

The Feudal Land Laws should be abolished 

What are you waiting for? it's 1844! 

The worm has begun to turn 

I saw those Calicos scorn and spurn their accusers 

With threatening talk and rough, tough threatening gestures 

The feeling was stronger and stronger 

(Stronger and stronger) 

They tried to talk like real Indians might: 

"Me want cider" and the like 

Many a head had worn this crown of feathers 

I tried to be the leader of the Anti-Rent Rioters 

I recognized it as having belonged to a left-handed neighbor 

Ooh a little Indian man called Sander 

Blow the tin dinner horn over the valley 

Call all the formerly normal men to revolt and rally 

The Feudal Land Laws should be abolished 

What are you waiting for, it's 1844? 

The worm has begun to turn 

Three, four, five, waaah! 

Waaah!