This old one from Larry Norman has been rattling round my head for the past few days. Maybe if I get it out, it will move on.
Larry Norman, circa 1973, The Great American Novel
I was born and raised an orphan in a land that once was free
in a land that poured its love out on the moon.
And I grew up in the shadows of your silos filled with grain
but you never helped me fill my empty spoon.
And when I was ten you murdered law with courtroom politics
and you learned to make a lie sound just like truth.
But I know you better now and I don't fall for all your tricks
and you've lost the one advantage of my youth.
You kill a black man at midnight just for talking to your daughter,
then you make his wife your mistress and you leave her without water.
And the sheet you wear upon your face is the sheet your children sleep on,
at every meal you say a prayer you don't believe but still you keep on.
And your money says, "In God we trust", but its against the law to pray in school
You say we beat the Russians to the moon, and I say you starved your children to do it.
You are far across the ocean in a war that's not your own
and while you're winning theirs you're gonna lose the one at home.
Do you really think the only way to bring about peace
is to sacrifice your children and kill all your enemies?
The politicians all make speeches while the newsmen all take notes
And they exaggerate the issue as they shove it down our throats.
Is it really up to them whether this country sinks or floats?
Well, I wonder who would lead us if none of us would vote.
Well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped from whispering through the fence
You know every move I make or is that just coincidence?
Will you try to make my way of life a little less like jail
if I promise to make tapes and slides and send them through the mail?You say all men are equal, all men are brothers,
then why are the rich more equal than others?
Don't ask me for the answers, I've only got one
that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son.
Sorry Randall,
ReplyDeleteI feel somewhat responsible for this song being in your head being as I did it at the Freehouse. If there's any other Norman tunes you'd like to hear to get in your head, let me know next time there's a sing-sing.
Yeah, thanks Scott.
ReplyDeleteWhen you started singing it by about the third line all the words started tumbling back from some dark corner of my mind. It was a bit freaky actually. I wonder what else is hidden back there.
For future reference, "UFO" is good, so is "The Outlaw" and "666"
Interestingly, if you can play one Larry Norman song, you can play most of them!!
Ah Larry!... Showing our age - gotta say I love the old guy though!
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