"High Cotton" is a song written by Scott Anders and

Roger Murrah Roger Alan Murrah (born November 20, 1946) is a songwriter and independent music publisher who has written hits for artists including Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, Al Jarreau, and Alabama.country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

group

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. It was released in July 1989 as the third single from the album '' Southern Star''. The song was one of four singles on the album to reach number one on the

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart.

Content

The song is a reminiscence of the youth of the narrator, who explains how his younger days were so good, and how he didn't realize how the times would change. ''"We didn't know that times were lean / Around our house the grass was green / It didn't seem like things were all that bad."'' The song references some the

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...

s and customs characteristic of religious farming families, especially during the olden days, such as taking Sunday as a strict day of rest, whether or not there was work that could be done. The whole fourth

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

of the song references this ''"When Sunday mornings rolled around / We dressed up in hand-me-downs / Just in time, to gather with the church / Sometimes I think how long it's been / And how it impressed me then / It was the only day my daddy wouldn't work."'' It also glorifies a generally simple lifestyle of hard work. ''"I bet we walked a thousand miles /'' ''Choppin' cotton and pushin' plows / And learnin' how to give it all we had."''

Music video

The music video, directed by Jack Cole, consists of fairly modern (upon release of the song) footage of a farm. The early 1950s Cadillac convertible that is seen throughout the video is being driven by the band members, who seem to be observing with admiration the things they are viewing that relate to the context of the song.

Chart positions

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 1989 singles 1989 songs Alabama (American band) songs Songs written by Roger Murrah Song recordings produced by Josh Leo RCA Records singles