Well, it was hard times back in the days
When my daddy worked on the WPA
And us youngins
We had to pick cotton for quarter a day
I used to get one pair of shoes
Every year, my friend
And I wore my britches
Till the seat wore thin
And I learned to do without
Every now and then
My daddy used to tell us youngins
"There's one thing sure
Life's hell to pay for when you're poor
Cause all waits just outside the door
Is the hard times, yeah"
And six days a week
All day long
My daddy he worked
Till he ached to his bones
And the best we could ever do
Was just get along
But when I look back
On those days, my friend
I can see now
How we made it back then
We just lived for the weekend
So we could have Saturday night
Every Saturday night
We'd all get together at Aunt Azalea's
And the party was never over
Till the crack of dawn
They put the table and chairs
Out on the porch
Put the coffee pot on the stove
Well friends, right then
I knew everybody was
Getting ready to get down
Let the good times roll
So I grabbed a guitar down and played fiddle
My little brother, the mandolin
And when the music started
Wasn't nobody sitting down
My cousin Tiny weighed 304
Played the bass so hard
That the yard was flowing
And I betcha they heard us
Having a good time all the way up town
The week was over
And the work was done
Saturday night was for having fun
We loved them good-time Saturday nights
Let the good times roll on
Good times
Get on it, Tiny
Hook that thing brother
Wanna talk about the hard times
Go to the bank
Try to borrow some money
What do you think?
Or take the car downtown
And fill up the tank
You talk about the hard times
Back then it was WPA and CC counts
Today it's unemployment food stamps
But they're both examples
That the hard times are here to stay
Now brothers and sisters
That's the long and short
That's all there is to it
We got no choice
We got to live through it
Now back home the way we used to do it
We had a good-time Saturday night
Every Saturday night
We'd all get together at Aunt Azalea's
And the party was never over
Till the crack of dawn
They put the table and chairs
Out on the porch
Put the coffee pot on the stove
Well, friends, right then
I knew everybody was getting ready to get down
Let the good times roll
So I grabbed a guitar down and played fiddle
My little brother, the mandolin
And when the music started
Wasn't nobody sitting down
My cousin Tiny weighed 304
Played the bass so hard
That the yard was flowing
And I betcha they heard us having a good time
All the way up town
The week was over and the work was done
Saturday night was for having fun
We loved them good-time Saturday nights
We let the good times roll on
We love the good times