Mama who is this man
with his long yellow legs
He just stands in the corn
and he’s thin as a blade
in a tattered green shirt
and his eyes are so black
I just stand there and stare
but he never looks back, mama
Hush little baby come inside and away from the door
help me sweep us this floor, little baby
Hush now, there’s just no accounting for the things that we see,
stay inside here with me little baby,
aaaaaaa…. stay away from that man.
But even inside mama
I feel him in my bed
His hands in my clothes
and his thoughts in my head
And I clutch at my bible
but he doesn’t seem to care
he just scratches it softly
with a yellow fingernail & I
Jesus Christ baby, well some things are out of his reach
He just came here to teach, little baby now
Maybe your papa’s third cousin is the man that we seek
He’s just a mile to the east, little baby now
aaaaaaaaa… maybe Freddy’s our man.
But how could Fred help mama
he’s a very bad man
His own wife bears the black & blue marks of his hand
And he tortures his own horse with spikes on his heels
he killed Randy last week when he tripped in the fields & he
Hush little baby, now there’s some things we can’t understand
Yes, he’s a very bad man, little baby
But saints are no friend to us now, when it’s evil we face
They just don’t know its ways, little baby now, Ahahaha… baby Fred is our man.
So my mama fetched freddy, she handed him gold,
from a quilt and a horse that my grandmother sold
and he came to our field, with a bottle in his hand,
and he spat on the ground and collapsed on the land…
and we shook him and shook him, but he wouldn’t awake
so I ran to his field, tugged the sleeve of his slave
& his wife she was screaming and crying for him
but I never saw the long legged yellow man again
Corn man he stands in the field with his black eyes so wide
always turned to the side little baby now
Skinny & scratchy he waits
for his meal of the day
it was our turn to pay, little baby now,
aaaaaaaha don’t think of corn man.