Ommie Wise Part 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)

Lyrics

The smoke from the battlefield drifted away

As Corporal J. Lewis deserted the fray

He ran from the bullets, evaded arrest

He told his companions I must get my rest

He told his companions I dream every night

The faces of men I've dispatched in the fight

Their shades will approach me as I lie so still

They offer their hand but they wish me no ill

They're shaking their heads now at something they know

For there is another who still haunts me so

Her name was Naomi, her life it was brief

She was plain, she was homely and destined for grief

She coveted riches, believed in my prize

She fell to her end, in the water she lies

There were no farewell kisses, no tender embrace

She was guilty of something beyond avarice

She entered the waters and down she did flow

But they gathered her up and it troubles me

It's not the account of her pitiful death

It's not her last pleading for her final breath

But when I consider how she once beseeched me

Her face has no features, her tongue has no speech

So I'm here to tell you what Lewis did last

Ahead of the firing squad and trumpet blast

He broke through the glass for a lock of her hair

He dug up her grave but the coffin was bare

Credits

• Written by: Traditional
  (Although not officially credited, Elvis wrote an entirely new set of lyrics for this song.)
• Produced by: Anthony Marinelli
• Recorded at Royce Hall, Los Angeles 2001-04-26
• Musicians:

Elvis Costello - vocal, acoustic guitar

Kate McGarrigle - background vocal

Anna McGarrigle - background vocal

Bill Frisell - acoustic guitar

Joel Zifkin - fiddle

Discography

Albums:

• none

Singles:

• none

Collections:

• none

Soundtracks:

• none

Various Artists collections:

• The Harry Smith Project: Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited, 2006

Alternate Versions:

• none

Covers

• G.B. Grayson, 1927 (collected on Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music, 1952)
• Clarence Ashley, on Old Time Music At Clarence Ashley's Vol. 2, 1963
• Doc Watson, on Doc Watson, 1964
• Roscoe Holcomb, on High Lonesome Sound, 1965
• Addie Graham, on Been A Long Time Traveling, 1978
• Peggy Seeger, on Heading For Home, 2003
• Kate & Anna McGarrigle, on The Harry Smith Project: Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited, 2006 (paired with Elvis' "Part 2")

(The recordings above are of the traditional "Ommie Wise," not Elvis' otherwise unrecorded "Part 2.")

Bootlegs

• This section may be incomplete.