Polk Salad Annie - Tony Joe White

Polk Salad Annie
Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash (from TV show 1970)



Folks down South have a way of talkin' makes understandin' a Scottish accent (not counting those from Glascow - yikes!) completely do-able. White and Cash together is pretty much perfection - two Southern boys having a whole lot of fun pickin' and singin' and makin' all us smile. I included the words below to answer "Say what?".

Note: Polk weed contains a lot of toxins/poison and can make you very very sick if not prepared properly. Only the very young leaves (never the berries, roots or seeds!) should be eaten (never raw) and they must first be boiled three separate times in clean water to reduce the toxins. My grandmother would fry spinach leaves in bacon grease (called it a wilted salad) which is very similar to how polk weed is prepared. In the past, poor families would cook polk weed as they had little else to eat. Fermented poke berries make an excellent ink and was used to write the Declaration of Independence, and the dye was used by the Native First People to decorate their horses. I'm not sure about dryin' an' smokin' it, or whether it make you 'more rested'. :)

POLK SALAD ANNIE
(words & music by Tony Joe White)

If some of ya'll never been down South too much
I'm gonna tell you a little bit about it, so that you'll understand
What I'm talking about
Down there we got a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields,
Looks somethin' like a turnip green. 'Except it ain't.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there
And she'd go out in the evenings and pick a mess of it
Carry it home and cook it for supper
'Cause that's about all they had to eat
But they did all right.

Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Polk salad Annie. Polk salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
(a mean, vicious critter, sinful)

Everyday 'fore supper time
She'd go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o' Polk salad
And carry it home in a tote sack

Polk salad Annie
'Gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was a workin' on the chain-gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin' woman,
Lord have mercy. Pick a mess of it)

Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for
Was stealin' watermelons out of my truck patch
Polk salad Annie
'Gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was a working' on the chain gang
(Sock a little polk salad to me, you know I need me a mess of it)