My Thirty Thousand

	  		


G               
Paul Robeson, he's the man 
C 
That faced the Ku Klux Klan 
G 
On hollow grove's golfing ground 
               D 
His words come sounding 


G 
And all around him there 
C 
To jump and clap and cheer 
G                D 
I sent the best, the best I had 
G 
My thirty thousand 


G 
The Klansman leader said 
C 
That Paul would lose his head 
G 
When thirty five thousand vets 
D 
Broke up that concert 


G 
But less than four thousand came 
C 
To side with the Klan 
G                 D 
But around Paul's lonesome oak 
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My thirty thousand 


G 
A beersoaked brassy band 
C 
Did snortle round the grounds 
G 
Four hundred noblest souls 
D 
Westchester's manhood 


G 
And they looked exactly like 
C 
The fleas on a tiger's back 
G                D 
Lost fish in the waters of 
G 
My thirty thousand 


G 
When Paul had sung and gone 
C 
And the kids and babies home 
G 
Cops came with guns and clubs 
D 
And they clubbed and beat 'em 


G 
Well, I'd hate to be a cop 
C 
Caught with a bloody stick 
G                     D 
'Cause you can't bash the brains 
G 
Out of thirty thousand 


G 
Each eye you tried to gouge 
C 
Each skull you tried to crack 
G 
Has a thousand, thousand friends 
D 
Around this green grass 


G 
If you furnish the skull someday 
C 
I'll pass out the clubs and guns 
G                   D 
To the billion hands that love 
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My thirty thousand 


G 
Each wrinkle on your face 
C 
I know it at a glance 
G 
You cannot run and hide 
G 
Nor duck nor dodge them 


G 
And your carcass and your deeds 
C 
Will fertilize the seeds 
G                    D 
Of the men that stood to guard 
G 
My thirty thousand 
G                    D 
Of the men that stood to guard 
G 
My thirty thousand