“Welfare Cadillac”

See the early 1970’s country-western protest song movement come to life as Guy Drake sings his classic novelty hit “Welfare Cadillac” on the PW show. The song was also recorded by a black artist, Jerry McCain, on the same record label! Truth is stranger than fiction.

h/t JDHasty

Well, I’ve never worked much
In fact, I’ve been poor all my life
Guess ’bout all I really own is
Ten kids and a wife
Course, this house that I live in
It ain’t nothing but shack
I always managed somehow to
Drive me a brand new Cadillac

Backdoor steps they
Done fell plum down
Front screen door’s off and
Laying somewhere out there on the ground
Wind just now whupped another piece of that old tar roofing off the back
Sure hope it don’t skin up that new Cadillac
Front porch’s porched, of course they then all come through at the bottom
It don’t make no sense to fix them
That floor wood is too darn rotten
Oh, in winter, we sometimes have some snow that
Blows in through the cracks
‘Fore it gets too bad, we just
All pile up and sleep out there in that new Cadillac

I know the place ain’t much but
I sure don’t pay no rent
I get the check the first of every month
From this big Federal Government
Course, every Wednesday, I get commodities
Why, sometimes, four or five sacks
Pick ’em up down at the welfare office
Of course, driving that new Cadillac

Now, some folks say I’m crazy
Fact, I’ve even been called a fool
But my kids get free books and
All them there free lunches down at school
We get peanut butter and cheese
And man, they give us flour by the sack
Course, the welfare checks make the payments on this new Cadillac

But you know the way that I really get it
These other folks are the fools
They’re all out there just working and paying taxes
Sending my youngins through school
Salvation Army cuts our hair and
Gives us the clothes we wear on our back
So we can dress up and ride around
Show off that new Cadillac

But you know, things gon’ get better yet, at
Least that’s what I understand
Now they tell me this new President just put in a heck of a new poverty plan
Now they say, he gon’ send us poor folks money
Men, we gonna get it down here in stacks
Fact is, my wife’s shopping ’round right now for her new Cadillac