'Patches'
-- Jerry Reed (1981)

The bottom lines: "I was so ragged that folks used to call me 'Patches'/Papa used to tease me about it/'Course, deep down inside he was hurt."

"Patches" is hit with one calamity after another -- already poor, his father dies, then a flood destroys his crops. The brutality of this depiction of rural Southern poverty -- a remake of a 1970 Clarence Carter R&B hit -- is matched only by the kid's determination.

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