"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" is a song by The Band, which originally appeared as the final track on their second album, The Band.
The song is credited solely to guitarist Robbie Robertson, although drummer/singer Levon Helm claimed that "King Harvest" was a group effort. It is sung in the first person from the point of view of a poverty-stricken farmer who, with increasing desperation, details the misfortune which has befallen him: there was no rain and his crops died, his barn burned down, he has ended up on skid row.
A labor union organizer appears, promising to improve things, and the narrator tells his new associates, "I'm a union man, now, all the way", but, perhaps ashamed of his station, begs them to "just don't judge me by my shoes." The events depicted in the song are most likely a reference to the organizing drives of the Trade Union Unity League, which created share-cropper unions from 1928 to 1935, throughout the U.S. South.
Lyrics
Corn in the fields
Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water
King Harvest has surely come
I work for the union 'cause she's so good to me
And I'm bound to come out on top
That's where she said I should be
I will hear every word the boss may say
For he's the one who hands me down my pay
Looks like this time I'm gonna get to stay
I'm a union man, now, all the way
The smell of the leaves
From the magnolia trees in the meadow
King Harvest has surely come
Dry summer, then comes fall
Which I depend on most of all
Hey, rainmaker, can't you hear the call?
Please let these crops grow tall
Long enough I've been up on Skid Row
And it's plain to see, I've nothing to show
I'm glad to pay those union dues
Just don't judge me by my shoes
Scarecrow and a yellow moon
And pretty soon a carnival on the edge of town
King Harvest has surely come
Last year, this time, wasn't no joke
My whole barn went up in smoke
Our horse Jethro, well he went mad
And I can't remember things bein' that bad
Then there comes a man with a paper and a pen
Tellin' us our hard times are about to end
And then, if they don't give us what we like
He said, "men, that's when you gotta go on strike"
Corn in the fields
Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water
King Harvest has surely come
Songwriters: Robbie Robertson
King Harvest (Has Surely Come) lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group
