Jimmy Clay

Watch Rosalie Perform Jimmy Clay
 
(Video streams may not be available during peak
access times.)

“The thing I particularly admire about this song [“Jimmy Clay”] is that it fits almost any circumstance… It has a timeless kind of quality about the observation of war.”       --Rosalie Sorrels

Rosalie Sorrels: I’m going to sing you one that my friend Patrick Sky wrote. The thing that I particularly admire about this song is it fits almost any circumstance. Patrick took the Irish part of his life really seriously and so he went to Ireland to be Irish. And he sang that song a lot over there and they loved it. There are two different very good playwrights who wrote a play from it. It has a timeless kind of quality about the observation of war.

Lyrics to song…
When you walk down the street who will follow you? Six o’clock, it’s getting late
And the moon is rising where the sticky dew
Molds on the ground by the gate
With your rifle on your shoulder as you walk along
Listening to your boot heels hit the sod
Smoking your cigar as you hum a song
Thinking of your mother and your god.

Ah you’re alone, jimmy clay
As you smoke your cigar and earn your pay
Fifteen thousand soldiers marching by your side
Yeah, but you’re alone, jimmy clay.

(instrumental interlude)

Remember New York town, good old New York town?
The drinks, the fights, the friends, the cops and all
And the whores who took your money when you could not stand
And all the roaring nights you can’t recall
Remember Alice Fay, good old Alice Fay?
I bet she’d been through life ten times around
When she said she loved you, well she meant it, boy
Remember the night you nearly drowned?

Ah, you’re alone Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and think of yesterday
But yesterday’s no good when it’s gone away
Where did it go, Jimmy Clay?

(instrumental interlude)

As you lie there in the mud, who will talk to you?
Nobody, Jimmy Clay
For when you have gone mankind follows you
Doesn’t it, Jimmy Clay?
And your cheeks are growing moldy where they kissed you there
They said please die for us jimmy clay
And so you died a soldier and a hero’s death
Congratulations, Jimmy Clay

Now you’re alone Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and earn your pay
Somewhere in the distance you can hear a fiddle play
Not one note has changed Jimmy Clay
And not one note will change, Jimmy Clay.

Back to top

Rosalie Sorrels: Way Out in Idaho is a production of Idaho Public Television.

© 2007 Idaho Public Television. All Rights Reserved. Published May 1, 2007

PBS Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use