(words & music by Tony Joe White)
Some of you all never been down South too much...
I´ gonna tell you a little story, so you´ll understand where I´m talking about

Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields,
and it looks something like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Now that´s Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she´d go out in the evenings to pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper, ´cause that´s about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.

Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
Lived a girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Polk salad Annie

´Gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
For the mama was working on the chain-gang
What a mean, vicious woman

Everyday before suppertime
She´d go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess of Polk salad
And carry it home in a tote sack

Polk salad Annie
´Gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
´Cause the mama was working on the chain-gang
Whoo, how wretched, dispiteful, straight-razor totin´ woman,
Lord have mercy.

Sock a little Polk salad to him
Yeah, you know what, yeah, yeah

But daddy was a lazy and a no-count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for
Was stealing watermelons out of my truck

For once Polk salad Annie
´Gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
For the mama was working on the chain-gang

Sock a little Polk salad to him
You know what meets a meal mention
You sock a little
Hey, hey, hey, yeah, yeah
Chic a bon, chic a bon, chic a bon bon bon bon

Chic a bon, chic a bon, chic a bon bon bon bon
Sock a little Polk salad to him
You know what meets a meal mention
Sock a little Polk salad to him
You know what meets a meal mention
Chinc, chinc, chinc, chin, ling, ling ling