Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions

I guess I planted some long lonesome seed of a song
Way down inside me long ago
And now I can't remember when it was
But it joined up with the rest of them and grows

It's such a little song it don't compare
With all your big ones you hear everywhere
But when it dawns way in the back of your mind
The big ones are made up of the little kind

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

I can't even start to look around me here
Without hearing this song
And seeing all of us first separated
Hurt apart and afraid

Hungry for the union
And so we kept on
Singing and working, fighting till we got it
And this is the big union song I guess I hear

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

We fought there at your place
We fought there on your ship
And I guess if you missed out on
The fight for our union

You missed out on one awful big step
Us people took

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

If you
Beat up, butcher, and
You bleed a man:
If you bang up and badger and
Blood let a man;
And then I come along
On the feet of man
And half way laff and cry 'bout
The meat of man,
And I do what I can to
Bale string and tie some ballad truths
Up cured out
For the feed of man
And
Folks try to tell me
That it's on god's orders
That you bleed your man;
It's on god's good word that you
Bleed your man;
On god's plan print
That you dead a man;
Or you spit and curse and whip
Your man;
I say I'll help you fix and
Squeeze yourself up a new kind of a god
Of some kind;
One that tells you
Fertilyze and multyplye;
One that
Tells you:
Outsow and outblow,
Outplant and outgrow;
Outdo, and outrun, and out climb, and out spread
Every other tree and bush
And brushy fruits and flower petals;
Out fruit them all
For the feed of man;
Out stalk and out hunt and out think
For god's own sweet sake, out think! out think!
Out think the fruits
Outgrow these animal kind and shapes of man!
It you miss and go down
Your dust will turn up on that long hot job
Once more again
To help in the feeding and the seed of man
And not in the bleeding and the end of man.

I done spent my last three cents
Mailing my letter to the president
I didn't make a show, I didn't make a dent
So I'm swinging over to this independent gent
Stetson Kennedy
Writing his name in
I cain't win out to save my soul
Long as smathers-dupont's got me in the hole
Them war profit boys are squawking and balking
That's what's got me out here walking and talking
Knocking on doors and windows
Wake up and run down election morning
And scribble in stetson Kennedy
I ain't the world's best writer nor the world's best speller
But when I believe in something I'm the loudest yeller
If we fix it so's you can't make money on war
We'll all forget what we're killing folks for
We'll find us a peace job equal and free
Dump smathers-dupont in a salty sea
Well, this makes stetson kennedy the man for me
Words: woody guthrie (1950) - music: billy bragg (1997)

Eisler on the go, Eisler on the move
Brother is on the vinegar truck
And I don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do
Eisler on the farm, Eisler on the town
Sister in the tickly bush
And I don't know what I'll do
Eisler on the boat, Eisler on the ship
Daddy on the hen house roof
And I don't know what I'll do
Eisler in the jailoe, Eisler back at home
Rankin scratch his head and cry
And I don't know what I'll do
Eisler him write music, Eisler him teach school
Truman him don't play so good
And I don't know what I'll do

Are your garments all spotless?
Are they white as the snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

Is your soul all spotless?
Is it clean as the snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

I am washed, yes I'm washed
I am washed in the blood
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

I'm all clean I'm all spotless
I'm all pure like the snow
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

Have you laid down your burdens?
Have you found peace and rest?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

I've laid down all my troubles
I've found peace and rest
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

Have you learned to love your neighbors?
Of all colors, creeds and kinds?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

I've learned to love my peoples
Of all colors, creeds, and kinds
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

I am washed, yes I'm washed
I am washed in the blood
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

I'm all clean I'm all spotless
And I'm pure like the snow
I'm all washed in the blood of the lamb

Joe DiMaggio's done it again
Joe DiMaggio's done it again
Clackin' that bat, gone with the wind
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

Some folks thought Big Joe was done
Some just figured Joe was gone
Steps to the platter with a great big grin
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

I'm gonna tell you just the way I feel
Man can't run without his heel
Watch that raggy pill split the wind
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

All three fielders jumped their best
Trying to climb that high board fence
They all growed whiskers on their chins
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

Up along the clouds where the eagles roam
Joe cracked that ball to whine and moan
His buddies all laugh as they trot on in
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

Grandma's home by the radio
On the television watching Joe
She jerks the beard off of Grandpa's chin
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

The puppy dog barked at the pussycat
How does it look from where you sat?
Looks like a cyclone slidin' in
Joe DiMaggio's done it again

I was born at half past twelve, almost one in the morning
I was born at half past one, almost two in the morning
Now my birthday comes again and I don't know how old I am
Half past one or two or three, almost four in the morning

I was born at half past four, almost five in the morning
I was born at half past six, almost seven in the morning
How old am I, you ask of me? One year younger than I used to be
Half past seven, half past eight, half past nine in the morning

I was born at half past nine, almost ten in the morning
I was born at half past ten, almost 'leven in the morning
Today my age is tweedle and twee, I'm prettier than I used to be
Half past 'leven, half past 'leven, almost twelve in the morning

Last night or the night before that
I won't say which night
A seaman friend of mine
I'll not say which seaman
Walked up to a big old building
I won't say which building
And would have not walked up the stairs
Not to say which stairs
If there had not been two girls
Leaving out the names of those two girls

I recall a door, a big long room
I'll not tell which room
I remember a deep blue rug
But I can't say which rug
A girl took down a book of poems
Not to say which book of poems
And as she read, I lay my head
And I can't tell which head
Down in her lap, and I can mention which lap

My seaman buddy and girl moved off
After a couple of pages and there I was
All night long, laying and listening
And forgetting the poems
And as well as I could recall
Or my seaman buddy could recollect
My girl had told us that she was a niece
Of Walt Whitman, but now which niece
And it takes a night and a girl
And a book of this kind
A long long time to find its way back

For your sparkling cocky smile
I have walked a million miles
Begging you to come wed me in the Spring
Why do you my dear delay,

What makes you laugh and turn away?
You're a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee
Well I know that you are itching to get married
Nora Lee

And I know I am twitching for the same thing
Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above
We can spend our lives in love

You're a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee
We can build a house and home
Where the flowers come to bloom
Around our yard I'll nail a fence so high

That the boys with peeping eyes
Cannot see that angel face
Of my hesitating beauty, Nora Lee
We can ramble hand in hand

Across the grasses of our land
I'll kiss you for each leaf on every tree
We can bring our kids to play
Where the dry winds blow today

If you'll quit your hesitating, Nora Lee

Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves?
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds?
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves
Face, breast, hips, and thighs
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes

Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled wood vines twine
Trees held us in on all four sides so thick we could not see
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me

Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky
Your fingers played with grassy moss, as limber you did lie
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there

Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away
The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go

There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why
The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die

The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
Your shape and form is dim but plain, there on our mountain bed
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head

I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I stand here filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land
And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands

I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears
I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here
My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again.

All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greed's, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again