To help pass the time, they [cotton pickers] would be singing in the fields. They'd sing these different songs, strung out all over the field. Sometimes they'd be singing the same song; other times it would be different songs. I never will forget, they would be just making up stuff to sing, like about the rain. Like, "I'm not gonna work another day without pay, and it seems like it's not gonna rain no more," because you knew when it rained, regardless of how much cotton was in the field, you couldn't pick it because you had water in the rows. That is how a lot of blues songs was written.