We push our cart past fields of broken, blighted ground
The constables came round and pulled our cottage down
Empty bellies, empty pockets, miles afoot without rest
There's nothing for us but to sail into the West
And we are bound upon a wheel
Our lives a judgement without appeal
But there's no other so we pray
The Lord our souls to bless
And we sail into the West
Packed like cargo in a hold too dark to see
Our companions are the Rat and the Flea
Of all who left our Isle's shores, ev'ry day we are one less
Still we endure, and we sail into the West
And we are bound upon a wheel
Our lives a judgement without appeal
But there's no other so we pray
The Lord our souls to bless
And we sail into the West
We slave away in their factories for a meager sum
Then we booze in cheap saloons in the Irish slum
A freer life on our own land, a beggars dream at best
Drink up and sing how we sailed into the West
The railroad lines are laid across the immigrant's back
It's the pick, the spade and the Mick for layn' track
Seamus is off with a huckster's map tucked away in his vest
He's for the gold fields somewhere in the West
And we are bound upon a wheel
Our lives a judgement without appeal
But there's no other so we pray
The Lord our souls to bless
And we sail into the West
Shotgun Johnson & the Mississippi Seven Lyrics Index
Shotgun Johnson & the Mississippi Seven Index