Old Joe Clark was a preacher-man He preached all over the plain The highest text he ever took Was a-High, Low, Jack, and a-Game Well, he came down to my house And showed me all of his cards He whispered low in his gambler's voice It's reallly not too hard I ain't never had no trouble Just walk around wearing a sheet Buncha people waving them palm leaves Just to keep Joe Clark from the heat Well, Old Joe Clark's got 2 little girls To wash his feet and sing 'Old Joe Clark', I heard one say 'We'll give you anything' Let's go down to the church-house There's a lotta good things goin' down The crown turns over at 9 o'clock With the cream of the underground
CHORUS: Well get on down to Canaan brother There's a lotta good things goin' down With a little bit of luck and a couple of bucks You could be down there when the Glory rolls Wake up brother, there's a new day coming And it hasn't got time to stop If'n you got the bread, you could change your head You could be down there when the Glory rolls Well I asked old Joe to manage me So that I could go and sing He said hurry up, I could wait on him And he'd help me to do my thing Now he calls me every hour When I'm trying to be alone Just wants to keep me posted That there's nothin' goin' on REPEAT CHORUS Well I need an old Orpheum 5-string With a 12 inch open back pot So the next time you go to the attic Look and see what you got Or a 12 inch Farland open-back 28 three-eighths inch scale I wish you'd write and let me know If'n you got one for sale REPEAT CHORUS ++R.I.P. John Hartford++