I once was a farmer   and I worked on the land   sunup to sundown      But you live by the plow   and you die by the same   The story it's often been told      Well the workin' was hard   but the living was good   and your time was your own      But how can a man   make his life on the land   When the bankers and the railroads own it all?      Soon the good life was gone   Summer's drought and winter's toll   till we were forced to leave      I rode the rails   for nigh on a year   Then we settled in a dreary factory town      It's ten cents an hour    and it's ten hours a day   and you'll never be free      From the doubts and the fears   and the life we're livin' here   with my family so far from their home      I once was a farmer   and I worked on the land   sunup to sundown      But you live by the plow   and you die by the same   The story it's often been told