Levee Song

i won't sell my soul but i'll rent it
make a little money and then spend it
i'm not ambitious as such
but the little i want i want a little too much
i work for a man with a handlebar mustache
who's a son of a bitch but he pays cash
he's on my tail every hour of the day
and he's always saying how
he could get a black kid to do what i did
for half of what he's paying me now
I'm going down to the levee
to watch those ships and think
how something as heavy as my heart
doesn't sink
i work with a man named jack
i don't trust that man behind my back
he says he's gonna get a gun
he's gonna shoot someone
and that someone is gonna be black
"if you're gonna do it right
better do it white" says jack