Artist: Woody Guthrie
Song: Two Good Men
This song is played in a fast fingerpicking style.
[Intro]
E A E B7 E
[Verse 1]
E
Say, there, did you hear the news?
B7 E
Sacco worked at trimming shoes;
E
Vanzetti was a peddling man,
B7 E
Pushed his fish cart with his hands.
[Chorus 1]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Sacco, Vanzetti are gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.
[Verse 2]
E
Sacco was born across the sea
B7 E
Somewhere over in Italy;
E
Vanzetti was born of parents fine,
B7 E
Drank the best Italian wine.
[Verse 3]
E
Sacco sailed the sea one day,
B7 E
Landed up in Boston Bay;
E
Vanzetti sailed the ocean blue,
B7 E
Landed up in Boston, too.
[Chorus 2]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.
[Verse 4]
E
Sacco's wife three children had,
B7 E
Sacco was a family man;
E
Vanzetti was a dreaming man,
B7 E
His book was always in his hand.
[Verse 5]
E
Sacco earned his bread and butter
B7 E
Being the factory's best shoe cutter;
E
Vanzetti spoke both day and night,
B7 E
Told the workers how to fight.
[Chorus 2]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.
[Verse 6]
E
I'll tell you if you ask me
B7 E
'Bout this payroll robbery;
E
Two clerks was killed by the shoe factory
B7 E
On the street in South Braintree.
[Verse 7]
E
Judge Thayer told his friends around
B7 E
He would cut the radicals down;
E
Anarchist bastards was the name
B7 E
Judge Thayer called these two good men.
[Verse 8]
E
I'll tell you the prosecutors' names,
B7 E
Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane;
E
The judge and lawyers strutted down,
B7 E
They done more tricks than circus clowns.
[Chorus 2]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.
[Verse 9]
E
Vanzetti docked here in 1908;
B7 E
He slept along the dirty streets,
E
He told the workers “Organize”
B7 E
And on the electric chair he dies.
[Verse 10]
E
All you people ought to be like me,
B7 E
And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
E
And every day find some ways to fight
B7 E
On the union side for workers' rights.
[Verse 11]
E
I've got no time to tell this tale,
B7 E
The dicks and bulls are on my trail;
E
But I'll remember these two good men
B7 E
That died to show me how to live.
[Chorus 2]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.
[Verse 12]
E
All you people in Suassos Lane
B7 E
Sing this song and sing it plain.
E
All you folks that's coming along,
B7 E
Jump in with me, and sing this song.
[Chorus 2]
E A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Two good men a long time gone
A E
Two good men a long time gone,
B7 E
Left me here to sing this song.