I once was a farmer
and I worked on the land
sunup to sundown

But you live by the plow
and you die by the same
The story it's often been told

Well the workin' was hard
but the living was good
and your time was your own

But how can a man
make his life on the land
When the bankers and the railroads own it all?

Soon the good life was gone
Summer's drought and winter's toll
till we were forced to leave

I rode the rails
for nigh on a year
Then we settled in a dreary factory town

It's ten cents an hour
and it's ten hours a day
and you'll never be free

From the doubts and the fears
and the life we're livin' here
with my family so far from their home

I once was a farmer
and I worked on the land
sunup to sundown

But you live by the plow
and you die by the same
The story it's often been told