Mermaid Avenue Bonus EP – Billy Bragg & Wilco

I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I’d give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars

They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass lke friendly wine
So, I’d give this world
just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

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!

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
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
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
Feel you 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
I sing to you my lovesick word

Bugeye Jim, I can’t come
I can twist and turn, 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

[Chorus]
At my window, sad and lonely
Oft times do I think of thee
Sad and lonely and I wonder
Do you ever think of me

[Verse 1]
Every day is sad and lonely
And every night is sad and blue
Do you ever think of me my darling
As you sail that ocean blue

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]
Will you find another sweetheart
In some far and distant land
Sad and lonely now I wonder
If our boat will ever land
Ships may ply the stormy ocean
And planes may fly the stormy sky
I’m sad and lonely but remember
Oh I’ll love you till I die