American country singer - after time spent in prison he became a country singer - his first album was "Same Train, Different Time: A Tribute to Jimmie Rodgers". Perhaps Merle came to prominence to many in 1966 with 'Swinging Doors' and 'The Bottle Let Me Down'. Although not his first hits, they were among three hits he had that year in the Top Ten. Later hits followed, including 'Branded Man', 'I Threw Away the Rose', 'Mama Tried', 'Today I Started Loving You Again', 'Working Man Blues', 'The Fightin' Side of Me', 'Okie from Muskogee' and 'If We Make It Through December'. The last two songs seem also to have had a major impact in America.
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California Cottonfields Lyrics
Merle Haggard
My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43,
When I was just a child in momma's arms.
My daddy plowed the ground and promised someday we would leave
This run-down mortgaged Oklahoma farm.
Then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my momma
That he'd finally saved enough to go.
California was his dream, a paradise, for he had seen
Pictures in magazines that told him so.
California Cottonfields,
Where labor camps were filled with weary men with broken dreams.
California Cottonfields,
As close to wealth as daddy ever came.
Nearly everything we had was sold or left behind,
From my daddy's plow to the soup that momma canned.
Some folks came to say farewell or see what all we had to sell;
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand.
That model A was loaded down and California bound;
A change of luck was just 4 days away.
But the only change that I remember seeing in my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver grey.
California Cottonfields,
Where labor camps were filled with weary men with broken dreams.
California Cottonfields,
As close to wealth as daddy ever came.