I Wasn't Born In Tennessee
Composer(s): Merle Haggard
Performer(s): Chip Taylor



Got my four pedal streel player
Jimmy's got his fiddle makin' like it was his own world
Got them city hillbillies an' them green-eyed fillies
Lookin' up at me like I was Merle
An' if we can't fool 'em all the time
It's all right with me
'Cause it's still my song, ain't nothin' wrong
An' I wasn't born in Tennessee

I was seven an' ten years an' hidin' my fears
Behind the sound of a steel guitar
Though the city was rockin', we was country
Sockin' it to 'em at a Mount Burnham bar
Them city folks, we was doin' our strokes
And that don't qualify me
I'll be back again, you remember then
That I wasn't born in Tennessee

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
An' we don't burn our draft cards down on main street, by golly
We like livin' right an' bein' free

I heard old Hag singin' about doin' his thing
An' I was proud of the things that he'd done
An' how them San Fran hippies an' them L.A. yippies
Ain't changin' that Okie none
But with every show, I see his sideburns grow
An' there's hair where his face used to be
An' in a year or so, you may never know
That I wasn't born in Tennessee

Pick it, John

I keep pushin' my ballpoint an' doin' a joint
Tryin' to get these words to rhyme
An' it'll be my pride if I can hide
My side of the Mason-Dixon line
But if that don't play your party
Honey, it's all right with me
'Cause I've got my dream waitin' just upstream
An' I wasn't born in Tennessee

Here we go

Got my four pedal streel player
Jimmy's got his fiddle makin' like it was his own world
Got them city hillbillies an' them green-eyed fillies
Lookin' up at me like I was Merle
An' if we can't fool 'em all the time
It's all right with me
'Cause it's still my song, ain't nothin' wrong
An' I wasn't born 
(Wasn't born)
On a farm 
(On a farm)
I never knew a horse I didn't wager on
I wasn't born in Tennessee