Jim Dean of Indiana Songtext
von Phil Ochs

It was on an Indiana farm
In the middle of the country
Growin′ in the fields of grain
Jim Dean of Indiana

His mother died when he was a boy
His father was a stranger
Marcus Winslow took him in
Nobody seemed to want him

The hired man sang like a storm
Sometimes he would beat him
'Cause he would never do the chores
He was lost in dreamin′

He never seemed to find a play
With the flatlands and the farmers
So he had to leave one day
He said to be an actor


Once he'd come back to the farm
With starlets from the stages
They locked themselves inside his room
The people turned their faces

A neighbor run from the movie house
Chickens, they were scattered
He swore he saw upon the screen
Jim Dean of Indiana

He played a boy without a home
Torn with no tomorrow
Reaching out to touch someone
A stranger in the shadow

The Winslows left for the movie town
They drove across the country
They hoped that he would stay around
And they hoped he would be friendly

He talked to them for half an hour
But he was busy racing
He left for the Grapevine road
They left for Indiana


Then Marcus heard on the radio
That a movie star was dying
He turned the tuner way down low
So Ortense could go on sleeping

It was not until they reached the farm
Where the hired man was waitin'
The wind was silent through the grain
It was just like they had told him

They buried him just down the road
A mile from the farmhouse
That is where I placed a flower
For Jim Dean of Indiana