[Verse 1] Just a simple kid from way out in the country Its a mystery how he won Mamas hand For as long as I remember, she would tell me Your Papa, hes a steelheaded man Every day at Six a.m. hed be out plowing Trying to make a buck on our acre plot of land But for all his work, we never had much money Papa was a steelheaded man [Chorus] Never had no schooling and 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 steelheaded man [Verse 2] 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 He couldnt read a book and keep his lips from moving Or add twoandtwo without looking at his hands He thought laughter was a vice and Jews were evil I declare, he was a steelheaded man [Chorus] Never had no schooling and 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 steelheaded man [Verse 3] Well, I had to shed a tear for my poor daddy This morning when we put him in the ground And as I watched the dirt hed worked fall oer 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 He died pathetic, penniless, and alone And the worst thing is, even if hed been some kind of a genius A hundred years from now, who wouldve known? [Chorus] Never had no schooling and 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 steelheaded man Papa was a steelheaded man
steelheaded, papa, schooling, never, muscle