Guthrie's Machine: the Protest Music Thread

games
21

Life… I wonder…
Will it take me under… I don’t know

Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassing
Imagine going to court with no trial
Lifestyle cruising blue behind my waters
No welfare supporters more conscious of the way we raise our daughters
Days are shorter, nights are colder
Feeling like life is over, these snakes strike like a cobra
The world’s hot my son got knocked evidentaly
It’s elementary, they want us all gone eventually
Trooping out of state for a plate knowledge
of coke was cooked without the garbage we’d all have the top dollars
Imagine everybody flashing, fashion
Designer clothes, lacing your click up with diamond vogues
Your people holding dough, no parole
No rubbers, go in raw imagine law with no undercovers
Just some thoughts for the mind
I take a glimpse into time
watch the blimp read “The World Is Mine”

If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love em love em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be, if you could
be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
these last days and times

The way to be, paradise like relaxing black, latino and anglo-saxon
Armani exchange the reins
Cash, Lost Tribe of Shabazz, free at last
Brand new whips to crash then we laugh in the iller path
The Villa house is for the crew, how we do
Trees for breakfast, dime sexes and Benz stretches
So many years of depression make me vision
The better living, type of place to raise kids in
Open they eyes to the lies history’s told foul
But I’m as wise as the old owl, plus the Gold Child
Seeing things like I was controlling, click rolling
Tricking six digits on kicks and still holding
Trips to Paris, I civilized every savage
Gimme one shot I turn trife life to lavish
Political prisoner set free, stress free
No work release purple M3’s and jet skis
Feel the wind breeze in West Indies
I make Coretta Scott-King mayor the cities and reverse themes to Willies
It sounds foul but every girl I meet to go downtown
I’d open every cell in Attica send em to Africa

If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love em love em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be, if you could
be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
these last days and times

And then we’ll walk right up to the sun
Hand in hand
We’ll walk right up to the sun
We won’t land
We’ll walk right up to the sun
Hand in hand
We’ll walk right up to the sun
We won’t land

You’d love to hear the story how the thugs live in worry
Duck down in car seats, heat’s mandatory
Running from Jake, gettin chased, hunger for papes
These are the breaks many mistakes go down out of state
Wait, I had to let it marinate we carry weight
Trying to get laced, flip the ace stack the safe
Millionaire plan to keep the gat with the cop camera
Making moves in Atlanta, back and forth scrambler
Cause you could have all the chips, be poor or rich
Still nobody want a nigga having shit
If I ruled the world and everything in it, sky’s the limit
I push a Q-45 Infinit
It wouldn’t be no such thing as jealousies or B Felonies
Strictly living longevity to the destiny
I thought I’d never see but reality struck
Better find out before your time’s out, what the fuck??

If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love em em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be, if you could
be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
these last days and times

If I ruled the world, if I ruled, if I ruled
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, if I ruled, if I ruled
I love em love em baby
Black diamonds and pearls, black diamonds
Could it be, if you could
black diamonds
be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
these last days and times

If I ruled the world, if I ruled
if I ruled, I’d free all my sons
black diamonds, I love em love em baby
Black diamonds and pearls, if I ruled
If I ruled the world

If I ruled the world
I love em love em baby

I’m countin’ down to the day deservin’
Fittin’ for a king
I’m waitin’ for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
‘Cause my money’s spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant
20.000 nig niggy nigas in the corner
Of the cell block but they come
From California
Population none in the desert and sun
Wit’ a gun cracker
Runnin’ things under his thumb
Starin’ hard at the postcards
Isn’t it odd and unique?
Seein’ people smile wild in the heat
120 degree
‘Cause I wanna be free
What’s a smilin’ fact
When the whole state’s racist
Why want a holiday Fuck it ‘cause I wanna
So what if I celebrate it standin’ on a corner
I ain’t drinkin’ no 40
I B thinkin’ time wit’ a nine
Until we get some land
Call me the trigger man
Looki lookin’ for the governor
Huh he ain’t lovin’ ya
But here to trouble ya
He’s rubbin’ ya wrong
Get the point come along

An he can get to the joint
I urinated on the state
While I was kickin’ this song
Yeah, he appear to be fair
The cracker over there
He try to keep it yesteryear
The good ol’ days
The same ol’ ways
That kept us dyin’
Yes, you me myself and I’ndeed
What he need is a nosebleed
Read between the lines
Then you see the lie
Politically planned
But understand that’s all she wrote
When we see the real side
That hide behind the vote
They can’t understand why he the man
I’m singin’ ‘bout a king
They don’t like it
When I decide to mike it
Wait I’m waitin’ for the date
For the man who demands respect
'Cause he was great c’mon
I’m on the one mission
To get a politician
To honor or he’s a gonner
By the time I get to Arizona

I got 25 days to do it
If a wall in the sky
Just watch me go thru it
‘Cause I gotta do what I gotta do
PE number one
Gets the job done
When it’s done and over
Was because I drove’er
Thru all the static
Not stick but automatic
That’s the way it is
He gotta get his
Talin’ MLK
Gonna find a way
Make the state pay
Lookin’ for the day
Hard as it seems
This ain’t no damn dream
Gotta know what I mean
It’s team against team
Catch the light beam
So I pray
I pray everyday
I do and praise jah the maker
Lookin’ for culture
I got but not here
From jah maker
Pushin’ and shakin’ the structure
Bringin’ down the babylon
Hearin’ the sucker
That make it hard for the brown
The hard Boulova
I need now
More than ever now
Who’s sittin’ on my freedah’
Opressor people beater
Piece of the pick
We picked a piece
Of land that we deservin’ now
Reparation a piece of the nation
And damn he got the nerve
Another nigga they say and classify
We want too much
My peep plus the whole nine is mine
Don’t think I even double dutch
Here’s a brother my attitude hit ‘em
Hang ‘em high
Blowin’ up the 90s started tickin’ 86
When the blind get a mind
Better start and earn while we sing it now
There will be the day we know those down and who will go

3 Likes
22
23

The next attack is coming
I heard it on the TV
Some important politician said
We’ve got to drive them into the sea
Round up all the Arabs
Send them back from where they came
Who cares if they are citizens
They’re fanatics all the same

The next attack is coming
Said dictators west and east
And New York can not rest
Until all the rebels are deceased
So send along those helicopters
And we will shoot them all
And we’ll cut social services
And build a shopping mall

The next attack is coming
Said the CEO
So we need to drill for oil
And build more pipelines, don’t you know
If these Arabs do not like it
And we need the military here
The American people will support us
Whether out of greed or fear

The next attack is coming
I heard an Afghan child say
My family was killed
By a plane the other day
And when I grow up
I will get them back
So I say beware, America
Here comes the next attack

The next attack is coming
Said Cheney to his men
And if it doesn’t
We can make one happen again
Every war we’ve ever been in
Was started with a lie
And this war is good business
So today’s the day for you to die.

The next attack is coming.

24

On a Xavier Rudd kick today. Much less ranty than my usual tunes.

So now come sit down
Will you talk with me now
Let me see through your eyes
Where there is so much light
We are biding our time
For these myths to unwind
All these changes we will confront

So please beware
With every place that you head
Look to your soul
For these things that you know
For the trees that we see
Cannot forever breathe
With the changes they will confront

You know some people they just won’t understand
No they just won’t understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don’t understand
No I just won’t understand
These things

And this sacred land
It has seen many hands
It has wealth and gold
Yet it is fragile and old
And all the greedy souls
Just don’t care to know
All the changes it will confront

So speak out loud
Of the things you are proud
And if you love this coast
Then keep it clean as it hopes
'Cause the way that it shines
May just dwindle with time
With the changes it will confront

You know some people they just won’t understand
No they just won’t understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don’t understand
No I just won’t understand
These things
You know some people they just won’t understand
No they just won’t understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don’t understand
No I just won’t understand
These things

So hold nice and close
I want to get to your soul
So that when it is cold
You won’t feel so alone
'Cause the roads that you take
May just crack and break
With the changes you will confront

With each gift that you share
You may heal and repair
With each choice you make
You may help someone’s day
Well I know you are strong
May your journey be long
And now I wish you the best of luck
Well I know you are strong
May your journey be long
And now I wish you the best of luck

You know some people they just won’t understand
No they just won’t understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don’t understand
No I just won’t understand
These things

.

People saving whales,
And giving your thanks to our seas,
My respect to the ones in the forest,
Standing up for our old trees

Them giving food to the hungry,
Giving hope to the needy,
Giving life to a baby,
Giving care for free,
'Cause there is freedom around us,
We have everything we need,
And I will care for you,
'Cause you care for me.
And we all have opinions,
Some of them get through,
But there’s better people,
With more good to do.
Good to do

And what I have could be a message
Or just some words from my heart
My respect to the ones making changes
For other lives they’ll give their own

Like giving food to the hungry,
Giving hope to the needy,
Giving life to a baby,
Giving care for free,
'Cause there is freedom around us,
We have everything we need,
And I will care for you,
'Cause you care for me.
And we all have opinions,
Some of them get through,
But there’s better people,
With more good to do.
Good to Do

Well our world it keeps spinning round and round it goes
Human nature keeps spreading its disease
And our children keep growing up with what they know
From what we teach and what they see
And it’s only a question of the time we have
And the lives that our children will lead
Cause they can only keep growing up with what they know
And what we teach, and what they see

Like giving food to the hungry,
Giving hope to the needy,
Giving life to a baby,
Giving care for free,
'Cause there is freedom around us,
We have everything we need,
And I will care for you,
'Cause you care for me.
We all have opinions,
Some of them get through,
But there’s better people,
With more good to do.

.

I know, I see, I feel and yes I fear it everyday
These egos their minds and games
With all their power could end our days
Still the sun it shines and the moon it sinks with grace
It’s such a shame that all this shit exists
Here on this earth, this magical place

I’m doing fine

Yes you have the funds and size
and power to make some change
What you have will break their smiles
So many people so many ways
Each child who walks their line
Should be free to run their race
It’s such a shame that all this shit exists
Here on this earth, this magical place

I’m doing fine

25

From '81 and maybe not intended as a protest song, but damn if this isn’t still relevant today:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFVMMCwsss

Lunatic Fringe
I know you’re out there
You’re in hiding, and you hold your meetings
I can hear you coming, and I know what you’re after
We’re wise to you this time we won’t let you kill the laughter
Lunatic Fringe - in the twilight’s last gleaming
This is open season, but you won’t get too far
'Cause you got to blame someone for your own confusion
We’re all on guard this time against the Final Solution
We can hear you coming no, you’re not going to win this time,
your not gonna win

We can hear the footsteps out along the walkway

Lunatic Fringe - we all know you’re out there
Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?
Oh Yea-a-a

4 Likes
26

As soon as you’re born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool
Till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

3 Likes
27

Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Toussaint said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it
Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Lumumba said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it

If you ain’t found something to die for
If you ain’t found something to die for, you’ll never live

If you ain’t found something to die for you’ll never live
We might feed and breathe but we never did
Except those with peace and equality
That don’t see what we call authority
Live and speak truth and kill them for
We love them dead when they speak no more
But they will endure, ideas are bulletproof
Tooth of truth it’s impossible to pull it loose
We smother any mouth, they utter it
Folly Fathers fear, we Mother it
We’re lovin they’re corrupt government
So we look the other way when in our name they’re strugglin’
We idolize 'em and we despise 'em
'Cause we’re reminded we’re the ones who are silent
So, give a moment for the times we were blinded
Scream at the top of your lungs like a siren

If you ain’t found something to die for
If you ain’t found something to die for, you’ll never live

Maybe the wise man has nothin’ to prove
But the one who has nothing has nothing to lose
More things we don’t need will make more thieves
More laws we don’t heed it’s all Siamese
Who leads? It don’t matter, they can’t make change
New driver but we got no brakes
Whatever the place, whatever the face
The master never ever frees his slave
They always knew it
So they pursue it
But we’ve been too divided to ever be guided through it
Gotta stop 'em because they’re rotten from the days of picking cotton
To sell us a love song and we’re so besotted
So confused, we believe their promise
But there are some that lead more honest
They are not forgotten, though they shot’em
So scream to the top of your lungs right from the bottom!

Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Toussaint said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it
Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Lumumba said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it

If you ain’t found something to die for
If you ain’t found something to die for, you’ll never live

People don’t rebel, the rebels are the tyrants
You are not God, so we are not defying
No human nature, just our behavior
The oppressed wanting their oppressor as their saviour
Around the globe killin’, made to be religion
But the book said they’re sinnin’
And that is just the beginnin’
Now spread democracy by dropping a bomb
On a terrorist with no shoes or socks
I reckon, history teaches us a lesson
The bigger terrorist is the one with the bigger weapons
They talked but we didn’t listen
They spoke and then went missin’
We can’t see all the things that imprison us
'Cause we don’t appreciate the freedoms that they have given us
I wouldn’t bet it, that we ever get it
Run, tell your friends that Akala said it

If you ain’t found something to die for
If you ain’t found something to die for, you’ll never live

Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Toussaint said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it
Malcolm said it
Martin said it
Marley said it
Ali said it
Garvey said it
Lumumba said it
I weren’t there but I’m sure Dessalines said it

28

In the state of Mississippi many years ago
A boy of 14 years got a taste of southern law
He saw his friend a hanging and his color was his crime
And the blood upon his jacket, left a brand upon his mind

Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies, too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh, let it never be again

His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone
Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we’ll never know
They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground
But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down

Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies, too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh, let it never be again

The killer waited by his home, hidden by the night
As Evers stepped out from his car into the rifle sight
He slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side
It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died

Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies, too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh, let it never be again

And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear
Laid him in his grave when the victory was near
While we waited for the future for freedom through the land
The country gained a killer and the country lost a man

Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies, too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh, let it never be again

2 Likes
29

Took a walk in my neighborhood
Two in the morning
By the Skytrain Station

The streets were full of junkies and homeless
And they all wanted something
They all wanted something

And what am I supposed to do?
There are too many of you
Too many of you

Yeah, sometimes look you in the eye
Say that, “I too am human, I could easily be you”

Although we all hover between apathy and compassion
We fill up all our days with so much distraction
What makes it easier not to see what we don’t want to

But we all live here
We all live here
We all live, don’t we?

Took a walk in my neighborhood
Two in the morning
By the Skytrain Station

The streets were full of junkies and homeless
And they all wanted something
They all wanted something

And what am I supposed to do?
There are too many of you
Too many of you

Yeah, sometimes look you in the eye
Say that, "I too am human, I could easily be you”
”I could easily be you, I could easily be you”

2 Likes
30

Anytime you beg another man to set you free
You’ll never be free
Freedom is something that you have to do for yourself
This is why I say this is the ballot or the bullet
It’s liberty or death
It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody

Freedom
Your public service died, death to World Bank and IMF; is it
Freedom?
The kleptocracy orchestrated, subjugate the corporate state that isn’t
Freedom
Theresa’s a terrorist, we could be standing at the precipice of
Freedom

Pontificate, Philosophise
Cross the T’s, dot the I’s
I heard em’ say the revolution won’t be monetized
But it could be wrapped up, packaged and commodified
In this poisonous equation, I wonder what am I?
Tax dodging tabloids, profit from these horrid lies
Peddle patriotism but economically colonise
Sycophants, grippin’ flags, tell you that they’re on your side
Sell off your services abroad, who do they prioritise?
Robin Hood in reverse, these robberies aren’t secrets
Bonuses for bankers and backhanders for arms dealers
Can’t cage the alternative that now exists
With the skill of an alchemist, turn pain into empowerment
Inspired to be alive, in this powerful moment
No more will these cowards sell us out to their donors
We rose, like a giant awoken out of this coma
Confront the culture of power with the power of culture!!!
We sing

Freedom!
Your public service died, death to World Bank and IMF; is it
Freedom?!
The kleptocracy orchestrated, subjugate the corporate state that isn’t
Freedom!
Theresa’s a terrorist, we could be standing at the precipice of
Freedom!

History favours the trail blazers
The taste for change is contagious
It’s not strange these faceless takers are afraid of raising wages
When the same major papers say that we should hate our neighbours
Then when the rage cascades
These sadists claim that their blameless
What is clear, some don’t even pay taxes on their profits here
Wrote against the interests of Murdoch and Rothermere
Not conspiracy theory, conspiracy actuality
Until now politics, merely a practicality
They deify celebrity
What happens when no celebrities turn and you say it plunders no necessity
I don’t condemn the deified but mourn those whose brilliant as them who died
Potential unrealised
Atomisation had us
Distant and deafened
Now we’re interconnected, independent but interdependant
We rose, like a giant awoken out of a coma
Confront the culture of power with the power of culture!
We sing!

Freedom!
Your public service died, death to World Bank and IMF; is it
Freedom?!
The kleptocracy orchestrated, subjugate the corporate state that isn’t
Freedom!
Theresa’s a terrorist, we could be standing at the precipice of
Freedom!

31
2 Likes
32

Oldie, but goodie:

33

Earwormy.

Hey, you
We got your war
We’re at the gates
We’re at your door
Hey, you
We got your war
We’re at the gates
We’re at your door

We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run

We wanna thank you for flyin with us
We know you coulda stayed home, just cried and cussed
May all your guns go off if it’s time to bust
May all their tanks have time to rust
They got the armies turnin bullets into gold
They got the hookers turnin tricks in the cold
And everytime the police kicks in the do
An angel gas-brakes-dips in The O
And even if a D-boy flips him a O
It ain’t enough to buy shit anymo
Sleep in the doorway, piss on the floor
Look in the sky wait for missiles to show
It’s finna blow, cuz
They got the TV- we got the truth
They own the judges and we got the proof
We got hella people- they got helicopters
They got the bombs and we got the- we got the

We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run

Don’t talk about, it’s not a show
Be about it, it’s bout to blow
Don’t talk about, it’s not a show
Be about it, it’s bout to blow

I just spit the dope lines
I don’t snort em
Tell the boss to call police to escort him
You don’t write all them lies, you just quote em
Get offline, plug in to this modem
No you can’t out-vote em
The rules are still golden
Only jewels we holdin
is if we guardin our scrotum
If you press your ear to the turf that is stolen
You can hear the sound of limitations explodin
Please, sir, may we have another portion?
We’re children of the beast that dodged the abortion
Neck placed firm tween the floor and their florsheim
We’ll shut your shit down- don’t call it extortion
Caution- we’re coming for your head
So call the feds and get files to shred
Every textbook read said bring you the bread
But guess what we got you instead

We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run

Let’s keep it bangin like a shotgun
We’re in a war before we fought one
Now if you’re tired of workin so they can play-
A common enemy, we got one
Now keep it bangin like a shotgun
We’re in a war before we fought one
Now if you’re tired of workin so they can play-
A common enemy, we got one

Don’t talk about, it’s not a show
Be about it, it’s bout to blow
Don’t talk about, it’s not a show
Be about it, it’s bout to blow

1 Like
34

https://youtu.be/00G1mS_fGWA

In a building of gold, with riches untold,
lived the families on which the country was founded.
And the merchants of style, with their vain velvet smiles,
were there, for they also were hounded.
And the soft middle class crowded in to the last,
for the building was fully surrounded.
And the noise outside was the ringing of revolution.

Sadly they stared and sank in their chairs
and searched for a comforting notion.
And the rich silver walls looked ready to fall
As they shook in doubtful devotion.
The ice cubes would clink as they freshened their drinks,
wet their minds in bitter emotion.
And they talked about the ringing of revolution.

We were hardly aware of the hardships they beared,
for our time was taken with treasure.
Oh, life was a game, and work was a shame,
And pain was prevented by pleasure.
The world, cold and grey, was so far away
In the distance only money could measure.
But their thoughts were broken by the ringing of revolution.

And the clouds filled the room in darkening doom
as the crooked smoke rings were rising.
How long will it take, how can we escape
Someone asks, but no one’s advising.
And the quivering floor responds to the roar,
In a shake no longer surprising.
As closer and closer comes the ringing of revolution.

So softly they moan, please leave us alone
As back and forth they are pacing.
And they cover their ears and try not to hear
With pillows of silk they’re embracing.
The crackling crowd is laughing out loud,
peeking in at the target they’re chasing.
Now trembling inside the ringing of revolution.

With compromise sway we gave in half way
When we saw that rebellion was growing.
Now everything’s lost as they kneel by the cross
Where the blood of christ is still flowing.
To late for their sorrow they’ve reached their tomorrow
and reaped the seed they were sowing.
Now harvested by the ringing of revolution.

In tattered tuxedos they faced the new heroes
and crawled about in confusion.
And they sheepishly grinned for their memories were dim
of the decades of dark execution.
Hollow hands raised; they stood there amazed
in the shattering of their illusions.
As the windows were smashed by the ringing of revolution.

Down on our knees we’re begging you please,
We’re sorry for the way you were driven.
There’s no need to taunt just take what you want,
and we’ll make amends, if we’re living.
But away from the grounds the flames told the town
that only the dead are forgiven.
As they vanished inside the ringing of revolution.

35

There’s a green plaid jacket on the back of the chair
It’s like a moment frozen forever there
Mom and Dad had a lot of big plans for their little man
So proud

Mama’s gone crazy 'cause her baby’s cut down
By some teenage car chase, war out of bounds
It was the wrong place, wrong time, wrong end of a gun
Sad

(Shoot)
Shoot straight
(Shoot)
From the hip, ya’ll
(Shoot)
Gone forever in a trigger slip
Well, it could have been
It could have been your brother

(Shoot)
Shoot straight
(Shoot)
Shoot to kill, yeah
Blame each other, well, blame yourself
You know, God is a bullet
Have mercy on us everyone

They’re gonna call me sir, they’ll all stop picking on me
Well, I’m a high school grad, I’m over five-foot-three
I’ll get a badge and a gun and I’ll join the P.D.
They’ll see

He didn’t have to use the gun they put in his hand
But when the guy came at him, well, he panicked and ran
And it’s a thirty long years 'fore they’ll give him another chance
And it’s sad, sad, yes, sad

(Shoot)
Shoot straight
(Shoot)
From the hip, ya’ll
(Shoot)
It’s all gone in a trigger slip
Well, it could have been
It could have been your mother

(Shoot)
Shoot straight
(Shoot)
Shoot to kill, ya’ll
Blame each other, blame yourself
You know, God is a bullet
Have mercy on us everyone

(Shoot)
Shoot straight
(Shoot)
From the hip, ya’ll
(Shoot)
Gone forever in a trigger slip
Well, it could have been
It could have been your mother

(Shoot)
John Lennon
(Shoot)
Dr. King, yeah
Harvey Milk, and all for goddamn nothing
God is a bullet
Have mercy on us everyone
God is a bullet
Have mercy on us everyone.

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36
1 Like
37

Here’s a couple of contemporary protest songs to chew on for a bit.

Lyrics (not reposting here due to repeated use of the n-word):

Lyrics (also not reposting here due to repeated use of the n-word):

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38

That is a flat-out awesome album. One of my absolute favourites.

2 Likes
39

Another hearse roll up slow,
Carry one more poor lost soul,
Carry them things every single day
Cause it makes him feel safe
Cause he carry on them ways, screw face
Love the game-reppin’ his estate,
Talk tough look straight in his face,
Carrying deep pain self-hate,
Carry fam, so he carry weight,
It’s logical daddy got carried away,
Not married away, just didn’t stay
Coward carried his son to this fate,
His boys carrying weight in a wooden box can’t stand straight,
They was getting outta the game,
But look fate she don’t wait
Now the woman in the front row, her face t show no pain,
But her brain went insane on the day the news came,
Stare into space, face numb,
The boy getting carried, she carried 9 months

When this world strip me naked, I turn and I face it,
And really believe I have the strength to change it,
I’m crazy, it’s blatant sometimes I get carried away
When this world strip me naked, I turn and I face it,
And really believe I have the strength to change it,
I’m crazy, it’s blatant sometimes I get carried away

One more body bag getting carried back,
From the war zone where they carry straps,
Where little kids is attacking tanks cause they carry no fear of the man,
All they know here is they land
And a hero, gotta make a stand,
So they roll cold with it in their hand,
Let bang on the big bad man,
But this particular soldier never move colder
Never enrolled to blow no homes up
Felt that life had carried him under
Chose to phone the number
The army gives you training,
Nothing they say could really explain it,
Sign them t papers, enslavement,
Now you’re a tool to carry their hatred,
Rob, steal, strip a nation
All he wanted was qualifications
So he could carry his family places,
Better than those that he was raised in
Never really thought, he’d ever have to go to war,
Now who’s gonna tell his kids daddy can’t carry them no more

When this world strip me naked, I turn and I face it,
And really believe I have the strength to change it,
I’m crazy, it’s blatant sometimes I get carried away
When this world strip me naked, I turn and I face it,
And really believe I have the strength to change it,
I’m crazy, it’s blatant sometimes I get carried away

40

This year in my garden I grow peppers and tomatoes
Peppers and tomatoes, they grow together well
And my neighbors all around me they grow beans and potatoes
Cabbages and onions in this village where we dwell

And later in the year we will bring wine to the table
Bring wine to the table and reap what we have sown
Like my father did before and his father did before him
And his father did before him, we will share what we have grown

This little patch of dirt, this little pile of stones
I can wash the dust from off my face and skin
But this earth is in my bones

Military vehicles are passing through our village
Passing through our village with young soldiers ill at ease
Unsmiling and unshaven, distrustful and uncertain
Distrustful and uncertain and all smoking constantly

And my neighbors say, "Don’t worry for you are one of us
You are one of us and it will not happen here"
But the next night at the cafe when I bring wine to the table
When I bring wine to the table but they are sitting drinking beer

Last night the hand of friendship fell heavy on my shoulders
Heavy on my shoulders as I turned away to go
As I said goodnight some old men, some old men and young soldiers
Were humming tunes and singing words to songs that I did not know

Oh, this little patch of dirt and this little pile of stones
I can wash the dust from off my face and skin
But this earth is in my bones

This morning my wife told me that she’d been to church on Sunday
Been to church on Sunday, she had felt the need to pray
Our children were baptized there but it was just to please the old ones
Just to please the old ones and I don’t know what to say

Tonight as dark is falling, I am tending to my garden
Tending to my garden and the crop that I have grown
And my car is heavy laden and soon I’ll start the engine
Soon I’ll start the engine, wake the children and be gone

Oh, this little patch of dirt and this little pile of stones
I can wash the dust from off my face and skin
But this earth is in my bones

My shotgun it is loaded and it’s hidden in the cabin
It’s hidden in the cabin and the evening’s growing chilled
My mouth is dry, my hands are ■■■■■ and if someone tries to stop me
Someone tries to stop me, I am ready now to kill

Oh, this little patch of dirt and this little pile of stones
I can wash the dust from off my face and skin
But this earth is in my bones

I am watering my garden when I smell the cigarette smoke
Smell the cigarette smoke and I turn round in the dust
And I see the glint of rifles but I cannot see the faces
But I recognize the voices that say, “You must come with us”

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