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I heard Odessa's mind was sick |
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That she was crazier than hell |
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The police caught her turning tricks |
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Down at the Blue and Gray motel |
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Odessa was the neighbor's maid |
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She had ten mouths at home to feed |
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They bussed her kids to Birmingham |
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And put her in the county jail |
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Nobody seemed to give a damn |
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They say a white man posted bail |
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My dad said not to breathe a word |
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I told my brother all I heard |
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And the train of change |
|
Was coming fast to my hometown |
|
We had the choice to climb on board |
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Or get run down |
|
It was crazy, grown men fights |
|
Over segregation and civil rights |
|
Martin Luther King, KKK |
|
George C. Wallace and LBJ |
|
When the National Guard came in |
|
I thought the world was gonna end |
|
It was crazy in Alabama |
|
Down at the corner Dairy Dip |
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They sold soft ice cream for a dime |
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White people ordered from the front |
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The side was for the colored line |
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And we all were told they had their place |
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Because they were a different race |
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We spent hot summer afternoons |
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At the public swimming pool |
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Where the privileged and the few |
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Played on their island of cool blue |
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And brown children watched outside the fence |
|
It never made one lick of sense |
|
But the train of change |
|
Was coming fast to my hometown |
|
We had the choice to climb on board |
|
Or get run down |
|
It was crazy, there were grown men fights |
|
Over segregation and civil rights |
|
Martin Luther King and the KKK |
|
George C. Wallace and LBJ |
|
When the National Guard came in |
|
I thought the world was gonna end |
|
It was crazy in Alabama |
|
My momma yelled child get inside |
|
Drew the drapes and locked the doors |
|
We watched the marchers passing by |
|
Felt the rumble heard the roar |
|
And they all held hands they sang and wept |
|
And freedom rang in every step |
|
'Cause the train of change |
|
Was marching through my hometown |
|
We had the choice to climb on board |
|
Or get run down |
|
It was crazy, there were grown men fights |
|
Over segregation and civil rights |
|
Martin Luther King and the KKK |
|
George C. Wallace and LBJ |
|
When the National Guard came in |
|
I thought the world was gonna end |
|
It was crazy in Alabama |
|
And I heard Odessa's mind was sick |
|
That she was crazier than hell |
