John Denver: “Grandma’s Feather Bed”

If Gadsden native Jim Connor hadn’t bothered to clean out a guitar case before selling it, his classic song “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” made popular by John Denver, never would have been recorded.

Connor, 73, who lives on Sand Mountain, said the song began as a letter that was a poem to his grandmother, who operated a boarding house in the Woodlawn area of Birmingham. As a child, Connor would visit there, spending time with his eight cousins. Personally, I’m very thankful for this song. This tune takes me back to my childhood. We sang it in chorus and my aunt would play it every Christmas, the whole family would chime in.

(Source)

Lyrics for “Grandma’s Feather Bed”

When I was a little bitty boy

Just up off-a floor

We used to go down to Grandma’s house

Every month end or so

We had chicken pie and country ham

And homemade butter on the bread

But the best darn thing about Grandma’s house

Was her great big feather bed

It was nine feet high and six feet wide

Soft as a downy chick

It was made from the feathers of forty ‘leven geese

Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick

It’d hold eight kids, four hound dogs

And a piggy we stole from the shed

We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun

On Grandma’s feather bed

After the supper we’d sit around the fire

The old folks’d spit and chew

Pa would talk about the farm and the war

And Granny’d sing a ballad or two

I’d sit and listen and watch the fire

the middle of the old feather bed

It was nine feet high and six feet wide

Soft as a downy chick

It was made from the feathers of forty’leven geese

Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick

It’d hold eight kids, four hound dogs

And a piggy we stole from the shed

We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun

On Grandma’s feather bed

Well I love my Ma, an’ I love my Pa

Love Granny and Grandpa too

Been fishing with my uncle, I wrestled with my cousin

I even kissed Aunt Lou oooh

But if ever had to make a choice

I guess it ought to be said

That I’d trade them all plus the gal down the road

For Grandma’s feather bed

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