Lehrer gives an unreliable narrator a cheerful longing for the American South, then exposes slavery, segregation, and lynching beneath the sentiment. These disturbing historical references are the target of the satire, not an endorsement. This edition follows the complete first page, labeled recorded version; the separately labeled revised second page is not interleaved with it.
I wanna go back to Dixie,
Take me back to dear ol' Dixie,
That's the only li'l ol' place for li'l ol' me.
Old times there are not forgotten,
Whuppin' slaves and sellin' cotton,
And waitin' for the Robert E. Lee.
(It was never there on time.)
I'll go back to the Swanee,
Where pellagra makes you scrawny,
And the honeysuckle clutters up the vine.
I really am a-fixin'
To go home and start a-mixin'
Down below that Mason-Dixon line.
Oh, poll tax,
How I love ya, how I love ya, my dear ol' poll tax.
Won'tcha come with me to Alabammy,
Back to the arms of my dear ol' Mammy,
Her cookin's lousy and her hands are clammy,
But what the hell, it's home.
Yes, for paradise the Southland is my nominee.
Jes' give me a ham hock and a grit of hominy.
I want to go back to Dixie,
I want to be a Dixie pixie
And eat corn pone till it's comin' outta my ears.
I want to talk with Southern gentlemen
And put that white sheet on again,
I ain't seen one good lynchin' in years.
The land of the boll weevil,
Where the laws are medieval,
Is callin' me to come and nevermore roam.
I want to go back to the Southland,
That "y'all" and "shet-ma-mouth" land,
Be it ever so decadent,
There's no place like home.