Wednesday, August 17, 2011

1968

                                In 1968, I was just ten years old
                                The world was all ours, or so we’d been told
                                We could have whatever we wanted, it was all ours to hold
                                For fortune favors the free and the bold

                                Yippie-i-io, yippie -i-o-ki-yay
                                I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
                               Had a flag on my wall, it was red, white, and blue
                               Someone stole it from me, and they sold it to you


                              And all of that time, we were embarked upon war
                              Knew where it was, never knew what it was for
                              My friend’s brother came home, I saw them at the store
                              He said to me, Little buddy, I don’t want to go back there no more






Dad was out back, out there by the fence
I told him they’d killed  him, just like the president
The gunman got away, no one knows where he went

Our neighbor said maybe now those goddamn
            niggers will finally see sense 

The senator had to tell them that their prince
        was dead
It wasn't so much what, as how gently 
        it was said 
He consoled them in the dark with tragic
       words that he'd read
Two months later he took a bullet in his 
       own head

                                                             Yippie-i-o, yippie i-o-ki-yay
I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
Had a flag on my wall, it was red white and blue
Someone stole it from me and they sold it to you




And he rode in his casket behind the two mules
He’d worked this old earth with just the simplest of tools
Plain words shone in his mouth like the most precious 

            of jewels
Who’d want to make any harder what is already so cruel?




And they carried the senator down on a funeral train
The people waited by the tracks in the sun and the rain
My map of the country was all bloodied and stained
Hello tomorrow, sorrow and pain

Yippie-i-io, yippie -i-o-ki-yay
I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
Had a flag on my wall, it was red, white, and blue
Someone stole it from me, and they sold it to you
 














Then the sufferers set the ghettos 
        on fire                      
They made of their own homes

        a great funeral pyre
Too many broken promises, 

        thwarted desires
Make hopes and dreams the confidence

        schemes of liars                                               

 











And the whole world was watching those kids in the streets
Of the city with the big shoulders, where the democrats meet
I knew they were righteous if doomed to defeat
And I’ve nevermore trusted the cop on the beat




The swiftest stood with their fists in the air
Their heads were bowed, their feet were bare
In supplication and defiance for the sufferers not there
So the owners stole their gold and silver away from that pair


Yippie-i-io, yippie -i-o-ki-yay
I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
Had a flag on my wall, it was red, white, and blue
Someone stole it from me, and they sold it to you






Well may you ask me how someone so young
Saw fit to pass judgment on things so long since begun
The fighter spoke like a child, but I saw his purpose was 

                strong
He said I was never called “nigger” by them Viet Cong

The gypsy stepped out and set fire to that song
He said  he thought it was groovy, others said it was 

                wrong
But the flag ain’t the property of the rich and the strong
We’re all native sons, we all belong

Yippie-i-io, yippie -i-o-ki-yay
I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
Had a flag on my wall, it was red, white, and blue
Someone stole it from me, and they sold it to you







Well, I lack ambition and I cannot keep score
Ever since then I sometimes wonder what all this freedom is for
And I remember what that boy told me was the truth of his war
"Once you fuck up that bad kid, you don't have to live up
                 to nothin' no more
Once you fuck up that bad, kid, you don't have to live up
                to nothin' no more" 
 
Yippie-i-io, yippie -i-o-ki-yay
I am a proud child of the brave U.S. of A
Had a flag on my wall, it was red, white, and blue
Someone stole it from me, and they sold it to you