come gather round me children a story i will tell i ve been around since jesus met the woman at the well i ve walks these roads ten thousand years i m a ragtime millionaire i am the rake and the ramblin saint the man from god knows where oh they hung me in downpatrick up near st patrick s tomb but my ghost rose up in the peat fire smoke toward the rising of the moon now as i drift through your villages all the maidens stop and stare there goes old tom the vagabond the man from god knows where so its rise up all you ancestors and dance upon your graves i ve come to hear your voices now so maybe i ll be saved cursed are we who forget the past but pray and don t despair my song is might haunt your dreams tonight i m the man from god knows where i ve slept beneath your bridges near your oil refineries i ve gambled on your river boats shenandoha kanakee i m the homeless lad i m the orphan child leaves of grass sewn through my hair yeah me and old walt whitman we re the men from god knows where i ve rode the rods on steam trains with a banjo on my knee while the ghost of stepan foster whispered lines to me of the storefront curch and the chain gang choir black sorrow filled the air then stephen died on a dross house floor like a man from god knows where i ve heard the sound of indian drums i ve heard the bugles blow before they re wrote history into a wild west show my kin sailed toward america to steal their indian ground they passed bill cody s ships european bound so lock up all your daughters your whiskey and your gold i have come to claim my bounty for the lies that i ve been told and as i look out on this crowd tonight i see most of you don t care come lift your glass reveal your past to the man from god knows where