Growing Trade

Growing Trade - Levon Helm

I worked the land to raise a family

'Til I was weary to the bone

But hard labor never bothered me

Lord it's all I've ever known

To many seasons of calamity

And too much interest on a loan

I'm half the size that I used to be

And half of that is gone

The crops ain't worth the seeding

Timber only gets you fire

The last hog I was feeding

I can hardly keep him alive

I got to do what I can to survive

I know the law won't be forgiving

But that will be the choice I made

I used to farm for a living

And now I'm in the growing trade

The summer beauty of the cotton field

Was like a view from heaven's door

My granddaddy said that harvest time

Was what the good Lord made us for

I guess you'd wonder where's the dignity

In a crop you raise to burn

But this land is my legacy

I got nowhere else to turn

A shotgun on my shoulder

Where a tow sack ought to be

The thieves are getting bolder

And the feds may be wise to me

I got to quit this eventually

I know the law won't be forgiving

But that will be the choice I made

I used to farm for a living

And now I'm in the growing trade

Hell the copters and the distance

Coming closer every day

There gonna meet some resistance

Ain't no price too rich to pay

There won't be any business

When they take it all away

Between the cop in the jailhouse

And a bed beneath the clay

I guess there's nothing to do now but pray

I know the law won't be forgiving

But that will be the choice I made

I used to farm for a living

And now I'm in the growing trade

I used to farm for a living

And now I'm in the growing trade