Just a simple kid from way out in the country It's a mystery how he won Mama's hand For as long as I remember she would tell me Your papa, he's a steel-headed man Every day at six a.m. he'd be up plowin' Tryin' to squeeze a buck off our acre plot of land But for all it's worth we never had much money Papa was a steel-headed man Chorus: Never had no schoolin', he never left the farm Never had a thing to show but the muscle in his arm Yeah, the world was just a little more than he could understand Papa was a steel-headed man Well he used to tell us stories from the Bible His homespun wisdom I still recall It was only as a man I came to find out He never knew much about anything at all Couldn't read a book and keep his lips from movin' Or add two and two without lookin' at his hands And, laughter was a vice and Jews were evil I declare he was a steel-headed man Chorus Well I had to she'd a tear for my poor daddy This morning when we put him in the ground And as I watched the dirt he worked fall o'er his coffin I wondered where in such a life any larger meaning or purpose could be found For he lived as quietly and ignorantly as an animal And he died pathetic, penniless, and alone And the worst thing is Even if he'd been some kind of a genius A hundred years from now, who would've known? Chorus