Vern Reed — Overture/Rock Island lyrics

Lyrics

River City Junction!
River City Junction!
You’re crazy with the heat! Credit is no good for an ocean salesman.
All aboard!
Why not? What’s the matter with credit?
Why it’s old fashioned.
Charlie! You’re an anvil salesman.
Your firm give credit?
No sir.
Nor anybody else.
River City! Next station stop. River City next!
Cash for the merchandise
Cash for the button hooks
Cash for the cotton goods
Cash for the hard goods
Cash for the fancy goods
Cash for the soft goods
Cash for the nuggins and the pickins and the friggins
Cash for the hog’s head, cash and jemmy johns
Cash for the crackers and the pickels and the fly paper.
Look,
Whadoya talk
Whadoya talk
Whadoya talk
Whadoya talk
whadoya talk
Where do you get it?
Whadoya talk
You can talk
You can talk
you can bicker
you can talk
you can bicker, bicker bicker
you can talk
you can talk
you can talk talk talk talk
bicker bicker bicker
You can talk all you want to but it’s different than it was
No it ain’t. No it ain’t but you gotta know the territory
Where’s the Model T Ford?
made the trouble
made the people want to go
want to get
want to get
want to get up and go
7 8 9 10 12 14 23 miles to the county seat
Yes sir
Yes sir
Who’s gonna patronize a little bitty two by four kinda store anymore?
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
where do you get it
not the Model T at all
take a gander at the store
at the Madrin store
at the present day store
at the present day Madrin departmentalized grocery store
What do ya talk
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
where do you get it
what do ya talk
what do ya talk
where do ya get it
You can talk
you can bicker
you can talk
you can bicker
you can talk, talk, talk,
bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk all you want to but it’s different than it was.
No it ain’t but you gotta know the territory.
Why it’s a you need a biscuit
made the trouble
you need a, you need a
put the crackers in the package
the you need a biscuit in an airtight sanitary package
made the cracker barrel obsolete
obsolete
obsolete
obsolete
Cracker Barrel went out the window with the mail pouch
cut plug chawin by the gold
changed the approach of the traveling salesman
made it pretty hard
No it didn’t
no it didn’t
but you gotta know the territory
Gone
gone
Gone with the hog’s head, cask and demmy john
Gone with the sugar barrel, pickel barrel, milk pen
Gone with the top and the pail and the tears
Ever meet a fella by the name of Hill?
Hill?
Hill?
Hill?
Hill? Hill
Hill? Hill!
No
Just a minute
Just a minute
Just a minute
never heard of any salesman hill
Now he doesn’t know the territory.
Doesn’t know the territory?
What’s the fella’s line?
Never worries bout his line
Never worries bout his line?
Or the Cracker Barrel being obsolete
or the you need a biscuit in an airtight sanitary package
Or the Model T Ford
Just a minute
Just a minute
Just a minute
Never worries bout his line
Never worries bout his line
or a dog gone thing
he’s just a
bang beat bell ringing
big palm great go neck or nothing
rip roar and every time a bullseye salesman
That’s professor Harold Hill
Harold Hill
Tell us what’s his line?
What’s his line?
He’s a fake and he doesn’t know the territory
What do ya talk
What do ya talk
What do ya talk
What do ya talk
He’s a music man
he’s a what?
He’s a what?
He’s a music man and he sells clarinets
to the kids in the town with the big trumbones and the ratatat drums
big brass base
big brass base
and the picilo the picilo
uniforms too with a shiny gold braid on them and a big red stripe running
Well I don’t know much about bands
but I do know that you can’t make a living selling big trombones
no sir
Mandalin pigs perhaps and here and there a joves harp
No the fella sells bans
boys bands
I don’t know how he does it
but he lives like a king
and he dallys and he gathers
and he shines
and when the man dances certainly boys what else? the piper pays him
Yes sir
Yes sir
yes sir
Yes sir
When the man dances certainly boys what else? the piper pays him
Yes sir
yes sir
but he doesn’t know the territory