What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?

 

Enjoy this entertainment break while you can, because there’s more bad news on the way. My reader-researchers are filling up my inbox with horror stories from around the nation.

 


 
(This is Tanya Tucker, apparently lip-synching to this recording, since she sounds identical to it, and I don’t see any musicians accompanying her, or singers backing her up.)
 

What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?
By Dallas Frazier & Earl Montgomery

What’s your mama’s name, child?
What’s your mama’s name?

Thirty some-odd years ago, a young man came to Memphis,
Asking ‘bout a rose that used to blossom in his world,
People never took the time to mind the young man’s questions,
Till one day they heard him ask a little green-eyed girl,

“What’s your mama’s name, child, what’s your mama’s name?
Does she ever talk about a place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned a man named Buford Wilson?
What’s your mama’s name, child, what’s your mama’s name?”

Twenty some-odd years ago a drunkard down in Memphis,
Lost a month of life and labor to the county jail,
Just because he asked a little green-eyed girl a question,
And offered her a nickel’s worth of candy if she’d tell.

A year and some-odd days ago an old man died in Memphis,
Just another wayward soul the county had to claim,
Inside the old man’s ragged coat they found a faded letter,
That said, “You have a daughter, and her eyes are Wilson green.”

“What’s your mama’s name, child, what’s your mama’s name?
Does she ever talk about a place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned a man named Buford Wilson?
What’s your mama’s name, child, what’s your mama’s name?

What’s your mama’s name, child, what’s your mama’s name?

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