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 am 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