From the recording Woody Fest on the Mount

Lyrics

Talkin’ Hard Work (G)
While we’re on the subject of hard work
I just wanted to say that I always was a man to work
I was born working, and I worked my way up by hard work
I ain’t never got nowhere yet, but I got there by hard work
Work of the hardest kind
I been down and I been out
I been disgusted and busted and couldn’t be trusted
I worked my way up and I worked my way down
I’ve been drunk and I’ve been sober
I’ve been baptized and I got hijacked
I’ve been robbed for cash and I’ve been robbed on the credit
I worked my way into jail and I worked my way out of jail
Woke up a lot of mornings, didn’t know where I was at
The hardest work I ever done is when I was trying to get myself a worried woman
To help ease my worried mind
I’m gonna tell you just how much work I had to do to get this woman I was telling you about

I shook hands with 97 of her kinfolks and her blood relatives
And I done the same with 86 people who was just her friends and her neighbors

I kissed 44 old women, and 28 young ones, 56 just sorta middle-aged ones

I kissed 73 babies and I put dry pants on 34 of them, as well as others

I held 125 wild horses, I put saddles and bridles on more than that
Harnessed some of the craziness and the wildest teams in that whole country

I rode 14 loco broncos to a standstill
And I let 42 hound dogs lick me all over

7 times I was bit by hungry dogs
I was chewed all to pieces twice by watermoccosins, rattlesnakes, on two river-bottoms

I chopped & I carried 314 armloads of stove wood
109 buckets of coal
carried a gallon of kerosene 18 miles over the mountains
got lost, lost a good pair of shoes in a mud hole

then I chopped and I weeded 48 rows of short cotton
13 acres of bad corn
I cut the sticker-weeds out of 11 backyards
All on account of cuz I wanted to show her I was a man & liked to work

I cleaned out 9 barnlofts
Cranked 31 cars, all makes and models
Pulled 3 cars out of mud holes, and 4 or 5 out of snow drifts

I dug 5 cisterns of water for some of her friends
Run all kinds of errands

Played the fiddle for 9 church meetings
I joined 11 separate denominations

I signed up with 7 of the best trade unions I could find
Paid my dues 6 months in advance

I waded 48 miles of swamps and 6 big rivers
Walked across 2 ranges of mountains, crossed 3 deserts

I got the fever, sun-stroke, malaria, flu, moon-struck, skeeter-bit, poison ivy, 7 year itch, and the blind staggers

I was give up for lost and dead a couple of times
Struck by lightning, struck by congress, struck by friends and kinfolks
As well as by 3 cars on highways and a lot of times peoples in-houses

I been hit and run down, run over and walked on, knocked around
I’m just sitting here now trying to study up what else I can do to show that woman I still ain’t afraid of hard work