I ain't down yet

You're down, Molly, holler, "Uncle!"

I ain't never shoutin' "Uncle" to you or nobody

'Cause I ain't never down

Come on, Molly, you're tuckered

Why don't you quit?

Sure, I'm tuckered and I might give out

But I won't give in

How can anybody say that I'm down?

Look, I'm thinking

I'm thinking very hard how to break through

Maybe here, maybe there, maybe no place

But there'll come a time

When nothin' and nobody wants me down

Like I wants me up

Up where the people are

Up where the talkin' is

Up where the joke's goin' on

Now looky here, I am important to me

Ain't no bottom to no pile

I mean much more to me than I mean to anybody I ever knew!

Certainly more than I mean to any siwashed jazzy, hamperers like you guys

Go ahead, break my arm

Me say, "Uncle"? Huh

Doesn't make a bit of difference for you to keep sayin'

I'm down 'til I say so, too

D'you ever try steppin' on a pissant?

Well, there's one now, jumpin', stompin', thinkin' you got him

Thinkin' he's quit

He don't think so

There he goes

And you can be positive sure I'm as good as any pissant that ever lived

Oh, I hate that word "down"

But I love that word "up"

'Cause "up" means "hope" and that's just what I got

Hope for someplace better

Someplace, I dunno, cleaner, shinier

Hell, if I gotta eat catfish heads all my life

Can't I have 'em off a plate, just once?

And a red silk dress

When there's girl enough for me to wear one

And then, someday

With all my might and all my main

I'm gonna learn to read and write

I'm gonna see what there is to see

So if you go from nowhere

On the road to somewhere

And you meet anyone

You'll know it's me

I'm gonna move from place to place

And find a house with a golden stair

And if that house is red

And has a big brass bed

I'm livin' there

Well, now

Who do you think you are?

I can be anybody

I can be a queen if I wanna be

Du-du-du-du

We've just been wrestlin' with a queen, if you please

Who'd recognize her with all that dirt on her knees

And with her bald head and golden toes

And that contraption she calls her nose

A queen can never be queen without any crow

So here's the fanciest throne that you'll ever own

Here is your scepter, here is your crown

Now won't you please sit down?

Well, now

You think you look like a queen?

Then go ahead and walk like a queen

Go on and march, march, march

She's queen, queen of the lard pail

Watch her marchin' by

Now don't forget to hold your head

Away up high

To show that you know

You gotta show you know, you know

I'm gonna learn to read and write (we've just been wrestlin' with a queen, if you please)

I'm gonna see what there is to see (who'd recognize her with all that dirt on her knees)

So if you go from nowhere, on the road to somewhere (and with her bald head and golden toes)

And you meet anyone, you'll know it's me (and that contraption she calls her nose)

I'm gonna move from place to place (a queen can never be queen without any crow)

And find a house with a golden stair (so here's the fanciest throne that you'll ever own)

And if that house is red, and has a big brass bed (here is your scepter, here is your crown)

I'm livin' there (now won't you please sit down?)