Date: Thu, 15 May 97 9:48:54 EDT
From: "Douglas K. Smith" <DKSmith@king.edu>
Subject: I Never Picked Cotton

I Never Picked Cotton
recorded by Johnny Cash on UNCHAINED

intro:  D------------0---------
        A--0-(1)-(2)---0-------
        E----------------3(b)-0

[chorus:]
E                *
I Never Picked Cotton
        A      E          A       E          A      E
Like my mother did and my brother did and my sister did 
       A          E   **B7           E
and my daddy died young workinF in a coal mine

* E---3-3-0---

**A-0-1-2--
  E--------

(up to F and play that chord until...)
When I was just a baby, too little for the cotton sack
I played in the dirt while the others worked till they couldnFt 
straighten up their backs

(up to F#...)
and I made myself a promise when I was old enought to run
that IFd never stay a single day in that Oklahoma sun, but
(...back down to E)

[chorus:]

Folks said that I grew up early and the farm couldnFt hold me then
so I stole ten bucks and a pickup truck and I never went back again

and it was fast cars and whiskey, long legged girls and fun
I had everything that money could bring and I took it all with a gun
but 

[chorus:]

It was Saturday night in Memphis when a redneck grabbed my shirt
He said go back to your cotton sack, I left him lyinF in the dirt

and theyFll take me in the morning to the gallows just outside
and in the time I got there ainFt a heck of a lot 
I can look back on with pride
but

[chorus:]

(also, on the chorus, it sounds good if you strum an Em 
and hammer on the G string to make an E on the part before 
you go into the verse)