The Popular Wobbly (T-Bone Slim)

By T-Bone Slim (Matt Valentine Huhta) - 1920; except for [*] added by Bruce "U Utah" Phillips -1981
Tune: "They Go Wild Over Me"

I'm as mild mannered as I can be,
And I've never done them harm that I can see.
Still on me they put a ban, and they throw me in the can,
They go wild, simply wild, over me.

They accuse me of rascality,
But I can't see why they always pick on me;
I'm as gentle as a lamb, but they take me for a ram.
They go wild, simply wild, over me.

Oh, the "bull,"[1] he went wild over me.
And he held his gun where everyone could see;
He was breathing rather hard, when he saw my union card,
He went wild, simply wild, over me.

Then the judge, he went wild over me.
And I plainly saw we never could agree;
So I let the man obey what his conscience had to say,
He went wild, simply wild, over me.

Oh, the jailer, he went wild over me,
And he locked me up and threw away the key;
It seems to be the rage, so they keep me in a cage,
They go wild, simply wild, over me.

They go wild, simply wild, over me,
I'm referring to the bedbug and the flea;
They disturb my slumber deep and I murmur in my sleep,
They go wild, simply wild, over me.

Will the roses grow wild over me
When I'm gone into the land that is to be?
When my soul and body part, in the stillness of my heart,
Will the roses grow wild over me?

[*]Well, then God, he went wild over me,
When I knelt beside the throne on bended knee.
When the angels heard me yell, they shot me down to Hell,
They went wild, simply wild, over me.

[1] A "bull" is essentially a cop, usually specifically a railroad cop who were famous for evicting IWW hoboes from trains.