Topsiders - Mike Watt

When a black gang man climbs up the stairs

Sticks his head out the hatch and what does he see?

Topsiders!

I get to thinking and what a mind-blow

All the folks that float this boat

Sure, we’re all brothers but with different gigs

And the engine room was the mission mens'

We took the hitch, the black gang crew

Deliverin' torque right to the screw

Under the deck, we’d hear the topsiders' feet

Everyone wailing their own beat

Still see them sailors in my brain

Fixin' their faces to their names

Cadena, Mugger, Robo, Ginn

Baiza, Brewer, Stevenson

Holtzman, Bostrom, Hart, Dukowski

Rollins, the Kirkwoods, Spot, Carducci

Norton, Ward, Claasen, Mould

And the boat’s main painter, Pettibon

When a black gang man climbs up the stairs

Sticks his head out the hatch and what does he see?

When a black gang man climbs up the stairs

Sticks his head out the hatch and what does he see?

Topsiders!