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