From the recording Porch Music
This is a re-write of an older song. I had a chance to sit with Mary Gauthier and pick some tunes. When she heard this, she asked me why I was being soft with what I really wanted to say, and she reminded me that art should comfort the abused and make the comfortable squirm. As a a very sketchy individual (drummer) once reminded me. Great songs are not written, they are re-written. And although it may not be 'great' I like this version better.
Lyrics
Colored Town c 1985 Jim Bickerstaff & Terry Feller
V1
I remember a town where a black man was a fearsome sight indeed
Lurking in the shadows at the dark end of the street
Across the Coast Line’s east bound rail
Where the train slowed down just to pick up the mail
and the police went to fill up the jail
over in colored town
V2
Leroy … he cleaned all the yards that graced Magnolia Boulevard
He worked real cheap and he worked real hard
and he kept his head bowed down
He never talked about black and white, He never complained about wrong and right
he just took it on home with him every night
back over to colored town
Chorus
And the ones that should have known better and claimed to live by sacred words
Wrapped themselves in the glory of some old story they once heard
Sunday prayers to God above, Monday show a little brotherly love
And give old Leroy a gentle shove
Back over to colored town
Turn around
V3 Breakdown
So many years later and Leroy’s gone
His grandchildren playing on a cul-de-sac lawn
Some things change as time moves on, but time can move so slow
There are changes blowing on every wind
And every mighty oak will bend
And time will heal what it cannot mend
Over in Colored town
Chorus
And its hard to not know better when you live by sacred words
And you’re kneeling in the ashes of some old story you once heard
Sunday prayers to God above, pray for peace and pray for love
And say a prayer for every gentle shove back over to colored town.