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

He's 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, he says it's gettin' late

And he says them black folks should 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-playing

Hey Nelly, Nelly, hand me down my gun

For 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, and 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

But 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

Thy're walking in a column that's a century wide

It was a long and a hard and a bloody ride, in 1963