
The Kelly Song Collective
Louis Riel
The buffalo were gone when I was born.
But anyways who built this maze?
I've never called it anything but corn.
I've been on beer since I was six.
Living on a reservation,
only child playing pick up sticks
and stoned to hell before I'm ten.
While other kids were superman
I'd close my eyes and I'd pretend.
I'm Louis Riel.
Does my name ring a bell?
And my rebellion, it's going well.
I'm Louis Riel.
I've been incarcerated once for stealing cars.
Once for unarmed robbery,
twice for leaving iron bars
with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a keg
of unimported swill. They caught me
'cuz I fell and broke my skinny leg
it out until the day I die.
I cross my heart. I hope to live .
And I'll stick a needle in my eye.
I've got a baby daughter I can't see.
The child welfare people like to
keep my flesh and blood from me.
But I'd steal her from her mother's arms and run
past the long arm of the law,
straight into the setting son
of mine I never had you. Hear my plea.
Be proud of who your father was;
the man you'll never; ever, ever be.
No one ever looks me in the heart
when they pay a dollar
for a piece of thousand year old art
ful dodgers walk around me like I'm mad.
But insanity's the only real thing
that I'll ever always had
a problem with the drugs and rehab.
But one night in the common room
I saw the Maple Leafs stick it to the Habs.
And when it just all gets too much for me
I wander through your markets
looking for a cup of tea,
a drink with jam and bread but they move me along.
So I find a stream of piss and tears;
a river called Saskatchewan
Fifteen and last calls coming like a train.
But I'm Louis 'til those morning bells
try bleeding him from my veins.
​
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© Audsongs 2001
