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Don't let the fragile manner fool you
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Don't let the fine, uncalloused hands take you in
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I'm the great grandson of Big Bill Haywood
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There's Wobbly blood flowing under this skin
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In eighteen hundred and ninety-nine
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In the war for justice in the Coeur d'Alene mines
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A thousand men were doing time
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In a makeshift prison for class war crime
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The Bunker Hill company scab mill
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had been blown to hell with dynamite
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The governor had declared martial law
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And called the Blue Coats in to join the fight
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against the Western Federation of Miners...
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They were running out of Indians
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Meanwhile:
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Into those greed-scarred mountains of Idaho
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Slipped another couple union men
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To report on the conflict and solidarize
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With their brothers in that Bastille bull-pen
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One of them was William D. Haywood
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"Big Bill" to the history books
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He'd gone down the mines at the age of nine
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And he'd learned to loathe profit by rook
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Been a cowboy too for a time...
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Pretty handy with a gun, despite the hand, mangled in a mine
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One day he'd harass the whole exploiter class
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With the Industrial Workers of the World
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Fighting with the "Wobblies" for "One Big Union"
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With the red flag of his words unfurled
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But in eighteen hundred and ninety nine
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In the Coeur d'Alenes up in arms
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Big Bill wasn't big enough to combat
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My Finnish great grandmother's charms
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So don't let the slender contours fool you
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Don't stop at my family name
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I'm the great grandson of Big Bill Haywood
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There's Wobbly blood flowing in these veins
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When Bill saw Evva his mouth went dry
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And he could hardly finish his talk
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At a Finn Hall meeting of prisoners wives
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He felt the rapture rising in him hot
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He begged her to take him for a ride on high
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To catch a few cutthroat trout
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He knew her intended was in that bull-pen sty
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But his heart knocked his brain flat out
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Well, maybe his gut did it, as guts will
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A man is a man and so was Big Bill
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Across the blue green pool of Bitterroot run-off
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He emplored her with his silent harangue
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"Love me now, wee winsome woman
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I'll have you or I'll go insane"
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Evva played her line by the cutthroat
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Flowing with the current was her lure
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The fish took the bait in a flash of silver
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As Bill wrapped his meaty arms around her
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Why not? She thought; she was tired...
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It was restful to be desired
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With the sky for a sheet and the earth for a bed
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Lofty love ran it's course
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But once it was over the American found his head
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And started looking for his horse
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The conviction he felt exploding inside
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Only took a moment to subside
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And when he looked down at Evva with his one good eye
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He couldn't see the thing for which he'd thought he would die
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He shook my great grandmother's hand...
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And said goodbye
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From a life long fight for the wretched of the earth
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To a grave under the Kremlin Wall
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From the great Wobbly strikes to trials, prison and dearth
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Bill fought for liberty and justice for all
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Yes and he left behind a son, my grandfather
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Conceived back in eighteen ninety-nine
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And that son had a woman who had my mother
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And that's why Big Bill's blood is mine
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I may not be good with an axe
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And I never scoured out a copper vein
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I never went to jail for One Big Union
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But there's Wobbly Blood feeding my brain
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So don't let the noble regard fool you
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This blood ain't blue it's red
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I'm the illegitimate great grandson of Big Bill Haywood
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And it's his Wobbly blood going to my head
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-----------------
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Wobbly Blood
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| Michelle Shocked |
