Red Wine

Red Wine - Woody Guthrie

Oh pour me a drink of Italian red wine

And let me taste it and call back to mind

Once more in my thoughts and once more in my soul

This story as great if not greater than all

The AP news on June 24th

Told about a patrolman named Earl J Vaugh

He stepped on a Main Street trolley car

And arrested Sacco and Vanzetti there

The article tells how Earl J Vaugh

Is now retiring as an officer of law

This cop goes down in my history

For arresting Sacco and Vanzetti that day

It was 1920 the 5th of May

The cop and some buddies took these men away

Off of the car and out and down

And down to the jail in Brockton town

There's been a killing and a robbery

At the Slater Morrill shoe factory

You two gents are carryin' guns

And you dodged the draft when the war did come

Yes 'tis so 'tis so 'tis so

We made for the borders of Mexico

The rich man's war we could not fight

So we crossed the border to keep out of sight

You men are known as radical sons

You must be killers you both carry guns

I'm a night watchman my friend peddles fish

And he carries his gun when he's got lots of cash

Oh pour me a glass of Germany's beer

Russia's hot vodka so strong and clear

Pour me a glass of Palestine's Hock

Or just a moonshiner's bucket of chock

Now let me think and let me see

How these two men were found guilty

How a hundred and sixty witnesses passed by

And the ones spoke for them was a hundred and five

Out of the rest about fifty just guessed

Out of the five that was put to the test

Only the story of one held true

After a hundred and fifty nine got through

And on this one uncertain and afraid

She saw the carload of robbers she said

One year later she remembered his face

After seein' his car for a second and a half

She told of his hand an' his gun an' his ears

She told of his shirt an' the cut of his hair

Remembered his eyes an' his lips an' his cheeks

And Eva Splaine's tale sent these men to the chair

I was right there in Boston the night that they died

I never did see such sight in my life

I thought the crowds would pull down the town

An' I was hopin' they'd do it and change things around

I hoped they'd pull Judge Thayer on down

From off of his bench and they'd chase him around

Hoped they'd run him around this stump

And stick him with a devil tails about ever' jump

Wash this tequila down with gin

An' a double straight shot of your black Virgin rum

My ale bubbled out an' my champagne is flat

I hear the man comin' I'm grabbin' my hat