Talking about those Swedes from Minnesota, sure like to drink some beer
Yeah them Swedes from Minnesota sure gotta lota ya sure
I'm not a Swede from Minnesota but I've been up there
Been up by Hibbing on the Mesabi Range
where there's so much iron    compasses act strange
I've seen Paul Bunyon.    No one is the same
Aw but those Swedes from Minnesota sure are some mighty men
they cut down a lot of trees, pulled the brakes on the train
yeah them Sedes from Minnesota        they are some working men

I got a gal up near Fargo, she gives me all her cash
she talks like a Swede, I talk like Johnny Cash
headed down to Texas, where they got the stash
I got a gal up in Bemidji, she would not give me none
I ain't saying she was frigid,   she was a lot of fun
she had ice up in her mucklucks        kept the defroster on
Up there in Minnesota where the lakes is froze
well its cold there in the country when the north wind blows
You can feel it down in Texas, it's not forty below
I'm glad I'm not a Swede in Minnesota living out in the sticks
not a Swede in Minnesota or dumb as a stick
I got my neighbor Rodrigo treaching me card tricks

A few years back my neighbor Rodrigo De Leon and I were out in my back yard playind cribbage, sitting by the fire, drinking a couple beers, after the game he asked me to sing him a song about the Swedes in Minnesota. We'd been talking about diffeerent ethnic issues and I'd told him about how, as a person of Norwegian descent growing up in Minnesota we'd joke about the Swedes. So there on the spot I made the song up. I thought it was pretty silly but Rigo insisted that I write it down. "It's good, Steve" he said. I thought well look at all those song writing rules that I'm breaking here.   Rhyming cash with Cash and stick with stick. As I was finishing my little performance he was trying to get me to say spic but I got out of it by saying card tricks.   We had many a happy hour working together, sitting by the fire playing ball, and music.   You can hear Rigo's voice between sides one and two on Guy Down the Street.

   Sometimes I felt a little bad about the line "dumb as a stick" because even though it is in good fun to say such a thing and it was an on the spot song composition I felt that some people might take offense.    So, depending on my mood, I guess, sometimes I sing "Glad I'm not a Swede in Minnesota living out in the sticks not a Swede in Minnesota , I've seen some of their tricks
I got a neighbor, Rodrigo wants me to call him Rick" .

Steve Ulrich