My thirty thousand is a very special song, the lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie around 1949 and the music and vocals were later (way later) composed and sung by Billy Bragg & Wilco in 1998, exactly 49 years after the story that inspired this song took place. The song talks about Paul Robeson, an african-american activist, singer, actor, writer that was threatened of death by the Ku Klux Klan in a hostile time in America, when civil rights were not consolidated as we know them today.
Billy Bragg & Wilco - My thirty thousand.mp3 (download)LyricsPaul 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 I Had, 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 Thousandi
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
Words by Woody Guthrie, music by Billy Bragg
© Copyright 1998 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
