My Thirty Thousand

Words by Woody Guthrie Music by Billy Bragg and Wilco From Mermaid Avenue Volume 3 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 round the grounds Four hundred noblest souls Westchester’s manhood And they looked exactly like The 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 they clubbed and beat ’em Well 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 Of the men that stood to guard My thirty thousand