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Joe Wouldn’t Hoe
Ralph Bedard made loud sex, wrote poetry, and crafted flutes by hand from discarded bamboo.
Doug Ferguson (dulcimer) work-studied while finishing a degree at Wayne State University – history? Bob Cameron (guitar) drove a UPS truck as a fill-in driver and tried to keep his VW Beetle running.
I solo’ed as a folk/rock singer, guitarist at bars and coffeehouses across Michigan: Union Street Oyster Bar (Hi, Tom), The Ark (Hi, Rick), … It was the tail end of the 70’s singer-songwriter era.
In The Lakepointe House we jammed a lot. Songs from across the 60’s & 70’s folk blues spectrum, as well as our own creations. Bob penned this favorite and in our diaspora we’ve shared it to all corners of our worlds.
It is many years later and it is August – a perfect time to sing “Joe Wouldn’t Hoe.”
Joe Wouldn't Hoe
By Bob Cameron, c. 1975
Chorus:
Joe wouldn't hoe the ground around his corn
He would stay in bed all the morn
The weeds grew high, up to the sky-eee
But the corn stayed down around his knees.
He got up in the spring to plant his crops
All the while thinking that he'd rather not
This corn he said is just too much work to keep
And with that thought in mind, he promptly went to sleep
(chorus) [thanks, Doug, for the two next verses]
He went out one bright August day
Hadn't been out there since May
The weeds were wound around the Milky Way-eeee
But the corn was down around his knees
He went to the fair when it came
Farmers there kicked him out in shame
They said "We're not gonna share the blame-eeee
For the corn staying down around your knees"
(chorus)
Folks round there, their thoughts revealed
They thought his corn was an abandoned field
They thought his farm was an auto dumping lot
And when the harvest came, he had a bumper crop... get it?
(chorus)
Now every song has a moral they say
Weed your corn or you won't make hay
Spend some time or you're gonna pay-eeee
When the corn stays down around your knees
(chorus) 
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