Copyright © 2009 Jack Hardy Music (BMI)
A few bad apples rotten to the core Something to blame the torture for Keep it all behind closed doors As American as apple pie Apples and blame by any other name The Garden of Eden would never be the same Sometimes a snake is just a snake Call it intelligent design (chorus:) Four score and seven years ago Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie Bye-Bye American pie Bye-Bye Blackbird One bad apple in the Marine Corps Corpus Christi Habeas Corps Thumbs up and smile some more That's what all those memos were for Smoke-'em-if-you-got-'em praise the Lord Pass the ammunition change the score Body count was a different war That's what we have contractors for (repeat chorus) Roll the apple of discord That's why we pay the chairman of the board To move headquarters and money off shore Bridge Over Troubled Blackwater Sittin' on the Dock of a Memphis court Waiting to hear the commission report 'Tween the Bay of Pigs and barrels of pork There's still time to lock up your daughters (repeat chorus)
Headin' down to Railroad Avenue Hang out at the Doc Holliday saloon Waiting for a train to take you away Your few good friends came to say goodbye Pitcher of beer and a pizza pie Waiting for a train to take you away Headin' out across state lines Makes it a federal crime When you're stealin' music back from the man Singing it across the land You headed out to save the world Wound up drunk and chasing girls Buddy can you spare a dime For the crime of the century Slap a quarter down on the track Let the 4:19 squash it flat Waiting for a train to take you away Throw a silver dollar 'cross the Potomac River Cross the Delaware in the dead of winter Gets you on a quarter - squashed by a train George Washington never looked so fine But defacing money is a federal crime So is stealin' music back from the man Singing it across the land You headed out to save the world Wound up drunk and chasing girls Buddy can you spare a dime For the crime of the century You made it to Chicago to Union Station Got a union card you're a union musician Waiting for a train to take you away But times got hard and you're playing on the corner Nickels and dimes and the occasional quarter Waitin' for a train to take you away Got an American flag lapel pin on This land is your land my land is gone Stealin' music back from the man Singing it across the land You headed out to save the world Wound up drunk and chasing girls Buddy can you spare a dime For the crime of the century
I would not take that road at night Even if it just might save you time No need to put trouble on your mind Where the rye grass lies bent and broke You have no idea of what has been Where rye grass used to wave in wind Trampled by hooves and hooded men Where the rye grass lies bent and broke You might think this long ago Somewhere down south far below Some people are just plain slow To open their eyes You could just take the road to the right And be back home in bed tonight To church in the morning halleloo But the rye grass is singing too I saw the length of rope pulled tight I saw the preacher close his eyes I saw the sheriff try not to smile Where the rye grass lies bent and broke You might think this long ago Somewhere down south far below Some people are just plain slow To believe No one reported what transpired These were all people who were admired That side of the wall the grass grows higher Where the rye grass lies bent and broke Hardly a trace of it now That tree by lightning struck down That field they have filled with cows Where the rye grass lies bent and broke
The Spigot Bar Money-Maker cigars Connecticut's finest on a Friday afternoon Sewn-in nametags Teddy Zeke and Carl Outside in the parking lot some very used cars Inside Miller High-Life and PBR On a hot and forgotten Friday afternoon Further downtown but not that far In the bowels of the tallest building sits the Marble Pillar Different kind of clientele different set of regulars Smokin' Fidel's finest German beer and waiters named Charles Temporary nametags they just forgot to discard Like they try to forget everything on a Friday afternoon 'Longside the river on a road of dusty tar The distant spires of Colt Industries a gift from the Tsar Makers of the M-16 rifle and the pearl-handled pistols Custer took too far In an afternoon of lost cause we ducked into a barn Me and the girl in the calico dress so lithe and angular In the Indian summer heat of a Friday afternoon Eyes adjust to the dim light from the door left ajar Pungent scent of tobacco leaves hanging from the spars Curing in the cool shade for those Money-Maker cigars And in that cool shade I was cured of something in particular By the girl in the calico dress whose fingernails left scars On a very unforgettable Friday afternoon
If I were to lay me down I would not could not sleep The hours of impenetrable darkness Into my room might seep The candle low the dimmest hope The lonely vigil I keep If I were to lay me down I know I could not sleep If I were to pace the floor I would not could not make sense Of all of this earth-bound madness That fights to add halfpence to pence If love could slip poverty's grip Without losing all innocence If I were to pace the floor I know I could not make sense If I were to hear your voice I would not could not endure The lilt of your elegant sadness That seems such a merciful cure Soft and low building slow To a crescendo a siren's lure If I were to hear your voice I know I could not endure If I were to lie beside you I would not could not resist The hardness of all my defenses Could be altered by your softest kiss Your cold desire iron in fire Could turn my heart into a fist If I were to lie beside you I know I could not resist If I were to fall in love I would not could not love you Your kiss of religious betrayal The lies that you swore were true I swore back then never again Would I trust what you say more than do If I were to fall in love I know I could not love you
The dust bowl is flooded the northwest is dry
Someone strike a match to shed us some light
But all that is burned is a cross in the yard
And a flood in the ninth parish ward
Climb up the hill to the capitol
Dare to hold them accountable
Ask questions
Jefferson the patriot fearless and bold
Takes Sally Hemmings when she's fourteen year old
Who cannot resist who cannot deny
The way his descendants now have to try
Climb up the hill to the capitol
Dare to hold them accountable
Ask questions
(chorus:)
And history has eyes history has ears
History finds secrets that are buried for years
Exploded explained exposed and explicit
History will judge us either stupid or complicit
And we know we are not stupid
Ask questions
Remember the Maine, Lusitania too
The Gulf of Tonkin and Peal Harbor Two
Where there's a will there's a way to go to war
And a profit without honor no more
Climb up the hill to the capitol
Dare to hold them accountable
Ask questions
Joshua believes in heaven and in hell
Polishes his trumpet in a dessert motel
Gambling and whoring till his time comes around
And the towers come tumbling down
Climb up the hill to the capitol
Dare to hold them accountable
Ask questions
(repeat chorus)
Rainer crossed the floor then he opened the door Then he opened a can of beer told her Look here one thing more I wont let you do it here Not in sight not of anyone here tonight I wont fall apart I wont let you break my heart Rainer walked outside on the porch In the light of the paraffin lamp said I Take it all in stride for the price of a postage stamp That you can send it to someone who might give a damn But I wont fall apart I wont let you break my heart (bridge:) Now that you mention it there might be a slight crack I tried hard to mend it like (how) I tried to win you back Ain't it just like Rainer to go take out his gun Say to no one this here's my friend you can Take it all apart but it goes back together again Makes a sound shoot out every street light in town But I wont fall apart I wont let you break my heart (repeat bridge) (How an out-of-mind) Rainer chewed gypsum weed then he crossed the street Said I'm just plum loco now but there ain't no heart on my sleeve Like that rusty Desoto car says for sale I might spend the night in jail But I wont fall apart I wont let you break my heart
There's a valley filled with poppies There's a mountain etched in blue There's a memory that hollers Where it echoes I love you Does not look like this island That is walled in by the sea With the only sound the warden Who is yelling at me Little bird that I see flying Do you know how far I've flown Do you know how low the valley Well I have sunk below And the warden takes the prisoners One by one to this room Where their every hope is broken 'Cept that death will take them soon And there's no one to ask questions And there's no one to reply To ask why I was taken On the fourth day of July Little bird that I see flying Can you even hear me cry Through the walls of this prison Where I will surely die And the crescent moon is shining Marking time as passing by And it's seven years and counting Since I bid you all goodbye In my dreams I'm dreaming of you In my dreams I can fly And I holler I love you And the valley replies
The cattle drives all had to end They had to end in Kansas The railhead towns all bored a hole In the pockets of your soul But oh sinner man oh sinner man You got no home in Kansas The only truth could be said of you Is you're just passing through If you could speak but a single truth It would be you weren't born to Kansas You lied 'bout your age growing up Lied on the way down too But oh sinner man oh sinner man The ladies you stole while in Kansas As if they believed a single thing Just humored you that's what they do You traded a 16- hand quarter horse For a pint-size painted pony Thought to blend in when you crossed those plains Like you thought you could ride those trains But oh sinner man oh sinner man The telegraph travels faster The lawmen all have shotguns now And the boxcars all are cold It was wintertime when you packed it in The blizzards roared through Kansas Took a day job shoveling coal Working wages broke your soul But oh sinner man oh sinner man Where you going to run to No one believes your stories now Even when you tell the truth
Now and then is just the difference between Two points in time now and then Now and then could be a lifetime ago Or could just be today now and then And here where we watch that river day after day You'd think that it is never changing But change is the just the silence between why and when That fills the space 'tween now and then Now and then people try to write about where they're going And where they've been now and then Or they write endless verse 'bout how things stay the same To shield themselves from any kind of change But here where the river flows both ways with the tide You always know there are two ways to decide things Now and then you have to put down your pen And just live in the space 'tween now and then Now and then is not the same as before and after Or the here-after-noon of what you said What you say and do either rings true Or dies in the silence 'tween now and then I hear there are those who don't know how to forgive And cannot live but drown in that river of now and then I love you now I loved you then And I'll love you in the space 'tween now and then I'll love you in the silence 'tween now and then
And so you fly little dove And so you fly You don't know why little dove You don't know why The water is wide little dove The water is wide So far to fly little dove To the other side In time you'll know But for now it's touch and go your way You might as well try little dove You're on your own Above the rising tide little dove The vast unknown The clouds on high little dove Cloud your view They billow white and full You fly in blue As winter slows Ice melting froze on the branch you seek The children cry little dove The children cry Their plaintive plight little dove Of fear and fright Those who bide little dove The fire and fight They cannot cry little dove Nor sleep at night You must show them how Not then or when but now