Kind as in 'Thank you kindly', i.e. I thank you according to custom, established order, etc. Thus in the song Geeshie is singing about the last sane words her father ever said. There is nothing "kind" or nice in the cold instructions her father gives. After the jump I've included some commentary from an essay by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
The last kind words I heard my daddy say,
Lord, the last kind words I heard my daddy say,
If I die, if I die, in the German War,
I want you to send my money,
Send it to my mother-in-law.
If I get killed, if I get killed,
Please don't bury my soul.
I cry, just leave me out, let the buzzards eat me whole.
When you see me coming, look 'cross the rich man's field.
If I don't bring you flour,
I'll bring you bolted meal.
I went to the depot, I looked up at the sun,
Cried, "Some train don't come,
Gon' be some walking done.
My mother told me, just before she died
Lord, blessed daughter, don't you be so wild.
The Mississippi River, you know it's deep and wide,
I can stand right here,
See my baby from the other side.
What you do to me, baby,
it never gets out of me.
I believe I'll see ya,
After I cross the deep blue sea.
Regarding the stanza that starts "The Mississippi River..." and ends "See my baby..." Sullivan writes,
This is one of the countless stock, or "floating," verses in the country blues, and players passed them around like gossip, much of the art to the music's poetry lying in arrangement rather than invention, in an almost haiku approach, by which drama and even narrative could be generated through sheer purity of image and intensity of juxtaposition. What has Wiley done with these lines? Normally they run, "I can see my baby [or my brownie] / from this other side." But there's something spooky happening to the spatial relationships. If I'm standing right here, how am I seeing you from the other side? The preposition is off. Ulness I'm slipping out of my body, of course, and joining you on the other side.
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