Willie (The Ballad of Willie Sutton)

Willie (The Ballad of Willie Sutton)
by Tom Chapin
© 1982 The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Willie's mama held him tight,
Shook him hard
Like you would shake a hand.
"You may never be tall," she whispered.
"But, William, be a man."

And high above Irish town
The moon was rising.
Willie felt like he was rising too.
Wide awake on the hot sheets,
He could hear the cattle driven down
Through the dark streets
To the slaughterhouse,
In the slums of Irish town.
He could hear over the river,
He could hear the tugboats call
He could hear his mama crying,
He could hear it all.

Willie, Willie, Willie, where are you?
Willie, Willie, where have you gone to?

Two men in a city bank,
One man holds the other's gun.
Willie smiles at the policeman,
"I don't want to hurt no one."
And one by one the tellers come.
He sits them down in order
The manager opens up the safe
And Willie walks around the corner.

Willie, Willie, Willie, where are you?
Willie, Willie, where have you gone to?

The warden held up his cigar,
Aimed it straight, smoking like a gun.
He said, "I know you, sweet Willie,
I know you want to make a run."
"The jail ain't been built that can hold me, Warden.
I'll walk out your front door."
So they took him back to isolation,
But he'd been there before.

Time in a straight line
Seasons pass through window bars
Rain, snow, sunshine
Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine
A slow hard climb doing time . . .

In the dead of the night,
In the moonlight,
There's a shadow on the wall
And they're smoking in the tower,
The guards are joking,
They don't hear that shadow fall.

And Willie's off and running
With Sing Sing at his back.
Louise is up here in the car
And the whole world's on his track.

Willie, Willie, Willie, where are you?
Willie, Willie, where have you gone to?

And all across the USA,
On every corner you can hear the shout . . .
"Extra, extra, read all about it,
Willie Sutton busted out!"

And they know he is a robber
And they know he is a crook
And they know it's just the big
Banker's money that he took.

And in the saloons and the barrooms
There's laughter, there's a fire in every eye,
'Cause it seems like it's all possible,
Like it's really worth the try.
And they retell all the stories,
As they're sucking down the suds,
"Willie, why'd you rob those banks?"
"'Cause that's where the money was!"

Willie, Willie, Willie, where are you?
Willie, Willie, where have you gone to?

This song appears on Tom Chapin's In The City Of Mercy CD.

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