"Liza Jane", another hoedown with alternating vocals by Seeger, White and Lampell, opens with a traditional verse but quickly moves into its isolationist message. One source credits Woody Guthrie as composer of this parody; Seeger remembers writing "Liza Jane," "Plow Under" and "Billy Boy" with Lee Hays on Helen Simon's apartment floor in early February 1941.
Lampell remembers writing it with Seeger....
I got a girl in Arkansas, little Liza Jane,
She sleeps in her kitchen with her feet in the hall, little Liza Jane.CHORUS:I'm gonna marry her if I can...
Oh! Won't you... Oh! Eliza, little Liza Jane,
Oh! Won't you... Oh! Eliza, little Liza Jane.
She loves me 'cause I'm a union man...Heard a speech by the President...
Wants to put me in a regiment...I went to the draft and stood in line...
Now I'm a number 609...Said in Congress yesterday...
"Take the right to strike away..."They say that labor camps are fine...
To make the young folk toe the line...I can't marry you today...
I can't afford it on my pay...Cut the pay and raise the rents...
It's all for national defense...Better make the government change its plan...
I aim to be a married man...Dry your tears, get out your knittin'...
I don't aim to be no bundle for Britain...
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