Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

My Thirty Thousand

Paul Robeson he’s the man
That faced the Ku Klux Klan
On hollow grove’s golfing ground
His words come sounding!
And all around him there
To jump and clap and cheer
I sent the best, the best I had
My thirty thousand

The Klansman leader said
That Paul would lose his head
When thirty five thousand vets
Broke up that concert.
But less than four thousand came
To side with the Klan!
But around Paul’s lonesome oak
(My thirty thousand).

A beersoaked brassy band
Did snortle around the grounds
Four hundred noblest souls
(Westchester’s manhood)!
They looked exactly like
Fleas on a tiger’s back;
Lost fish in the waters of
My thirty thousand!

When Paul had sung and gone
And the kids and babies home
Cops came with guns and clubs
And clubbed and beat them!
I’d hate to be a cop
Caught with a bloody stick,
('Cause you can’t bash the brains out
of thirty thousand)!

Each eye you tried to gouge,
Each skull you tried to crack,
Has a thousand thousand friends
Around this green grass!
If you furnish the skull someday
I'll pass out the clubs and guns
To the billion hands that love
My thirty thousand!

Each wrinkle on your face
I know it at a glance,
You cannot run and hide
Nor duck nor dodge them.
And your carcass and your deeds
Will fertilize the seeds
Of the men that stood to guard
My thirty thousand!

Words: Woody Guthrie (1949) | Music: Billy Bragg
Jay Bennett: banjo, melodica, backing vocal
Billy Bragg: guitar, vocal
Eliza Carthy: violin
Ken Coomer: drums
Ben Ivitsky: viola
John Stirratt: bass

Bugeye Jim

If I get up and let you in,
I lose my house and my home again;
If I get up and try to come,
I get sent back to the land I’m from.

The cloud came low and the rain did pour;
I hear your hand touch on my door;
The rain has quit and the light of the moon
Shows you standing in my room.

Bugeye Jim, I can’t come;
I can twist and turn, but I can’t come,
I can ache and I can burn, but I can’t come.
I woke up this morning with an aching brain;
Hear you tap on my window pane.

I look at you with a heavy head;
I hear you sit down on my bed;
The storm gets worse and my heart feels bare;
I feel your fingers comb my hair.

The mud it runs and the waters rise;
I feel your hotkiss on my eyes;
The rain it rained and the world did stir;
I sing to you my lovesick word.

Billy Bragg: resonator guitar, vocal
Words: Woody Guthrie (1946) | Music: Billy Bragg