Judy Collins - Hey Nelly Nelly

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, come to the window

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, look at what I see

He's ridin' into town on a sway-back mule

Got a tall, black hat and he looks like a fool

He sure is talkin' like he's been to school

And it's 1853

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, listen what he's sayin'

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, says it's gettin' late

And he says them black folk should all be free

To walk around the same as you and me

He's talkin' about a thing he calls democracy

And it's 1858

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, hear the band a-playin'

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, hand me down my gun

'Cause the men are cheerin' and the boys are too

They're all puttin' on their coats of blue

I can't sit around here and talk to you

'Cause it's 1861

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, come to the window

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, I've come home alive

My coat of blue is stained with red

And the man in the tall, black hat is dead

We sure will remember all the things he said

In 1865

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, come to the window

Hey, Nelly, Nelly, look at what I see

I see white folks and colored walkin' side by side

They're walkin' in a column that's a century wide

It's still a long and a hard and a bloody ride

In 1963