The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161057 Message #3824315
Posted By: Joe Offer
03-Dec-16 - 03:37 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/Add: Paddy Welcome Back (Utah Phillips)
Subject: ADD: Paddy Welcome Back (Utah Phillips)
This is from the Utah Phillips Starlight on the Rails Songbook, published in 1973. The book used to be online, but I couldn't find it anymore. If you email me, I can send you a scan with notation. -joe@mudcat.org-
PADDY WELCOME BACK (Utah Phillips, 1973)
I left my wife in a pauper's grave Over by the Loray mill. I left my thumb in a bluecoat trench On the edge of Chancellorville. I left my youth in a railroad camp And my pride in a whiskey jar. I left my pay in a little black book Down at the commissary store.
CHORUS Still she rolls and still she blows And her thunder shakes the land. It's Paddy welcome back to the end of the track With a gun and shovel in your hand.
I wish I was the suttler's mule And could draw his stable and board. You'd never find my name in that little black book, And I'd buy on account no more. I'd rather have the bridle and lash, Sure, I'd be driven no worse Than by that hijack yankee clerk With his hand ever in his purse.
Ching-chong Chinaman, he's got a curlicue, And he'll get my job some day, 'Cause he works like the devil owned his soul, And settles for half the pay. I'd drink bad whiskey and strong barge rum By the light of the brakeman's lamp, Then try another turn of the chuck-a-luck Down in the railroad camp.