[spoken] Some of ya’ll never been down South too much... I’m gonna tell you a little story so that you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields, and it looks somethin’ 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 and 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.

Sung:
Down in Louisiana where the alligators grow so mean
There 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
‘Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
Spoken: a mean, vicious woman

Everyday ’fore supper time, she’d go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o’ polk salad and carry it home in a tote sack

Polk salad Annie, ’gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
‘Cause her mama was aworkin’ on the chain-gang
Spoken: A wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin’ woman, Lord have mercy. Sock a little polk salad to her.

Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back all her brothers were fit for
Was stealin’ watermelons out of my truck patch
Polk salad Annie, ’gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was a working’ on the chain gang

Sock a little polk salad to me
You know I need a mess of it [repeat and vamp]