Ab  Ab  Bb  Bb

[Verse 1]
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My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43
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When I was just a child in mama's arms
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My daddy plowed the ground and prayed that some day we could leave
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This run down mortgaged Oklahoma farm
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And then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my mom
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That he finally saved enough to go
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California was his dream, a paradise for he had seen
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Lots of pretty girls in magazines that told him so

[Chorus]
Bb  Eb     F
California cotton fields
      Eb              F                   Eb             Bb
Where labor camps are filled with worried men and broken dreams
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California cotton fields
   Eb                 F          Bb
As close to wealth as daddy ever came

[Interlude Riff]
Ab  Ab  Bb  Bb

[Solo]
Bb  F   Ab  Eb
Bb  Bb  F   F
Bb  F   Ab  Eb
Bb  F   Bb  Bb

[Verse 2]
      Bb          F                Ab             Eb
Well, almost everything we had was sold or left behind
        Bb                                  F
From my daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
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Some folks came to say farewell and see what all we had to sell
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Some just came to shake my daddy's hand
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Oh, the Model A was loaded down and California bound
      C                                  F
And a change of luck was just four days away, yeah
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But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
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Was swimmin' dark hair turned to silver grey

[Chorus]
Bb  Eb     F
California cotton fields
      Eb              F                   Eb             Bb
Where labor camps are filled with worried men and broken dreams
Bb  Eb     F
California cotton fields
   Eb                 F          Bb
As close to wealth as daddy ever came