Album: Fill My Cup at De Melkbus: Live in Dordrecht, Netherlands
(Gern f.)

I’ve been working on a Watts tower
Been hauling up that molten lead
Blue fingernails and bleeding gums for me

I’ve lost my hair, I’ve lost it all
Watching those lead drops fall
For bigger paychecks and gloomy stars you see

Twelve toxic years in this bump and grind
These 75 feet I leave behind
Cursing dreams and lead and I am dead

If it wasn’t me, it’d be my son
If it wasn’t him, it’d be someone
His future wouldn’t be better and brighter than mine

Been working on a Watts tower
Been hauling up that molten lead
Mon nom est Jean Shot Quixote

I’m Shot Jimmie here from Griffintown
Replaced Jean Guy on the ground
3 and 9 ’til Urgel puts me down

Jean on top has called in sick
I’ll climb the stairs, I’ll take the risk
To get that little bit more of the pay

I’m 75 plus 6 feet high
People ask, I tell the why
You’d do a job that’ll only bring you down

My Brother was a constable
The other son he was a priest
My Sister was conscripted for a nurse

No churches, halls or hospitals
No bibles, blood or badges blue
I’ll do my work and I will be a saint

I been working on a Watts tower
Been hauling up that molten lead
It’s blue fingernails and bleeding gums for me

Let’s dance with the angels of death on this earth
Let’s dance with the boss who said it had worth
Let’s drink to the boys that we all left behind
Let’s raise another bucket of death up the vertical line

I’m Shot Morten and I’ve heard the sound
Lived my life inside smoketown
I’m the token Jew from the greasy Point you see

On Centre St. there’s a hotdog stand
I know some guys who’ve got a plan
Who’ll form a line and hold a sign for me

We’ll make ’em clean up all that mess
Make them pay, make them confess
They knew his blood would only last ten years

But the seaways freight will make it right
They moved it all to a Toronto site
No sovereignty or work for you this year

Now the tower is all dark and cold
Walls and ladders, rusty and old
There’ll be no fight, we’ll raze it to the ground

Yet it still stands on soil filled with lead
And all the work and workers are dead
Just pogey schemes, broken dreams and lead

Let’s dance with the angels of death on this earth
Let’s dance with the boss who said it had worth
Let’s drink to the boys that we all left behind
Let’s raise another bucket of death up the vertical line

Shot Gern f. here from Montreal
I’ve never seen those lead drops fall
But it’s blue fingernails and bleeding gums for me