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Billy Bragg |
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Mermaid Avenue |
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Walt Whitman's Niece |
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Last night or the night before that, |
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I won't say which night |
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A seaman friend of mine, |
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I'll not say which seaman, |
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Walked up to a big old building, |
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I won't say which building, |
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And would have not walked up the stairs, |
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Not to say which stairs, |
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If there had not been two girls, |
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Leaving out the names of those two girls. |
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I recall a door, a big long room, |
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I'll not tell which room, |
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I remember a deep blue rug, |
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But i can't say which rug, |
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A girl took down a book of poems, |
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Not to say which book of poems, |
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And as she read, i lay my head, |
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And i can't tell which head, |
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Down in her lap, and i can mention which lap |
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My seaman buddy and girl moved off |
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After a couple of pages and there i was, |
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All night long, laying and listening |
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And forgetting the poems. |
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And as well as i could recall |
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Or my seaman buddy could recollect, |
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My girl had told us that she was a niece, |
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Of walt whitman, but now which niece, |
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And it takes a night and a girl |
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And a book of this kind |
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A long long time to find its way back |
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Words: woody guthrie 1946 - music: billy bragg 1997 |
