Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  

Jenny Appleseed

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1964 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1992.

If I were Jenny Appleseed,
In this day and time,
I'd have a special job to do,
And this would be mine.
I'd get a great big loading truck
To carry such a load,
And I'd travel through this country
On ev'ry travelled road.
Watch what you're doing,
Please watch what you do,
I can't go on forever
Picking up after you.

I'd pick up every bottle,
I'd pick up every tin,
I'd pick up every carton
And I'd pile them all in.
From every bit of countryside
So green and so fine,
I'd pick up all the clutter left
By my human kind.

And when it was a mountain high
And all it could hold,
I'd paint a sign upon the sides
In letters big and bold:
"Oh all you jolly eaters
Of canned chicken stew,
You soda pop drinkers,
You beer drinkers, too,
Please watch what you're doing,
Please watch what you do,
I can't go on forever
Picking up after you."

Malvina Reynolds songbook(s) in which the music to this song appears:
---- The Muse of Parker Street
---- There's Music in the Air: Songs for the Middle-Young

Malvina Reynolds recording(s) on which this song is performed:
---- [none]

Recordings by other artists on which this song is performed:
---- Merrill Staton: The Spectrum of Music Level 3, Record 5 (Schirmer Records P 16694, 1983)