1. A Long Way Home
2. A Love Undone
3. All They Want To Talk About
4. Amadou Diallo
5. An Old Pair Of Shoes
6. Andres Raya
7. Anna Mae
A Long Way Home
as I was out walkin’ one cool summer’s evenin’
the sky was all shadowed and scattered with rain
an old gentleman busker I happened to pass
with harmonica melodies played in refrain
I reached in my pocket for money to pay
I knew it was true for he played it that way
(chorus)
it’s a long way home
many a mile to a bed of your own
it’s a long way home
weary you’ve grown on your own
I stood by the river that ran through the city
with waters that washed away off to the sea
six thousand miles to the northwest Pacific
a long distance vision in faint memory
sometimes you know it gets so hard to sea
then somebody tells you just where you should be
(chorus)
old Grandmother Angel with baskets of flowers
and newspaper packages under her arm
she talked as she walked with her friends the invisibles
easy to be with they meant her no harm
all of the others have moved underground
but she’s never alone when her friends are around
(chorus)
oh the world it is wide and far 'round its borders
from the east to the west it’s a long way to go
to pick up your roots and to travel all over
to take a good look to see how much you know
not to get fooled or to let it slip loose
but to take it in hand and to put it to use
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A Love Undone
an airplane needs a pilot like a family needs a heart
adrift without direction, you'd be lost before you even start
and I needed you to be there, but you were just a silhouette
a picture of a love undone, I see you're still unfinished yet
every twisted tree that grows from out of solid stone
is a picture of survival from where a scattered seed was sown
and I needed you to be there in times of shifting sands
but there was nothing you could give to fill my empty hands
and I needed you to be there but you never had the time
you were always so busy and we were all so busy being blind
and I don't want to cause you any pain, we've had enough of that now
but I see a window in the rain, we've got to open it somehow
I see it opening
father of an unknown son, stranger to his progeny
the distances between us, how far they must appear to be
and I needed you to be there, but that's all in the past
and but for this frozen moment, time goes by so fast
an airplane needs a pilot like a family needs a heart
All They Want To Talk About
there's a man there livin' in a cardboard box
and he's checkin' out the weather
hopin' it don't rain too hard
you know down around this part of town
it's a perilous life to be livin'
without a membership card
and it's hustle for hustle, it's hand to mouth
it's an easy hole to get in to, but it's so hard to get out
(chorus)
and all the want to talk about at city hall
is how to build a better building to play baseball
there's a teenage girl with a baby boy
and a great big monkey
on her thin little back
she's lookin' down the alleyway for some kind of love
seems like her whole life
keeps slippin' through that concrete crack
and it's tease for tease, it's a trap set to fall
won't be no memorial when she goes, just some spray paint on the wall
(chorus)
somebody's grandmother livin' on memories
and stretchin' that social security
as far as it'll go
you know I always thought you were supposed take care of your old people
I guess that shows how much
I know
and it's lonely for lonely, it's so far from grace
they say if you ain't in with the cash flow, you're just takin' up space
(chorus)
I see those long limousines glidin'
they got millionaires inside 'em
oh, and they look so fine
they'll play you for a taxpayer fool
and make a good clean killing
every time
and it's dollar for dollar, hear that cash register sound
they say that sports spectacular is the finest game in town
there's a shadow on the promised land
shiver in the winter
freezin' in the empty space
seems like nobody really cares about anybody anymore
if you ain't got a lot of money
or a pretty face
and it's slander for slander, it cuts like a knife
this ain't no game we're playin', this is real life
(chorus)
--------------------
An Old Pair Of Shoes
I met a young girl who sat on a step
I saw her quite clearly quite early one night
I spoke the first words that came to my head
she sealed my fate when she answered, “alright”
she looked quite old though she was younger than I
and I asked her how many like me she had seen
“I never counted,” she said with a grin
I looked at my hands said, “I see what you mean”
I heard her say as the night was wearing thin
and she printed my name on the bottom of her shoes
“all those who pass by they can never win,
but those who come in they can never lose”
there are many fine seas to part with your hand
and many fine roads if you know how to choose
to some it’s a chance at the ax of the queen
but to one it’s a name on an old pair of shoes
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Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo
New York City, shot him 19 times
they get away with murder
it oughtta be a capital crime
plain clothes after midnight
four white cops from the elite corps
and Amadou Diallo
standing in his own front door
Amadou Diallo
he was a West African man
they said he looked suspicious
he had somethin’ in his hand
it was his wallet
they put the trial up in Albany
where the police have more friends
they said it was a big mistake
and they’d try not to do it again
Amadou Diallo
his mother cryin’ in a far off lonesome place
she came to see justice done
but what she got was a slap in the face
trigger-happy gun thugs
walkin’ on the side of the law
some of them you know got a real short fuse
and that can be a fatal flaw
if you fit the description
they might say you were carryin’ a knife
Amadou Diallo
another stolen life
there’s a woman in the harbor
and she’s carrying a burning light
but it’s gettin’ hard to see it now
there’s gonna be a storm tonight
don’t you hear the thunder
don’t you feel that river run
someone ask a question, someone give a answer
somethin’s gotta be done
everybody’s talkin’
somethin’ on everybody’s mind
Amadou Diallo
it oughtta be a capital crime
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Andres Raya
he grew up in an orchard in a California town
where a military ticket was the best deal around
they give you a skill and a pat on the back
and maybe even a parade if you make it back
his mother was proud of him and she cried when she said goodbye
his father was proud of him too, there was a tear in his eye
his friends from the camp, they all gathered around
somebody finally made it out of this town
some people have all the chances and some people have none
lay down your burden where the river runs
reason and morality you can put them aside
flowers for Andres Raya, in the alley where he died
leavin’ on that day when the world went strange
comin’ back home and something had changed
everybody said there was a stranger in his eyes
and there were nightmares and dreams and a rage about to rise
he cried to his mother with those tears all down his face
saying, you have no idea what went on in that place
there’s something broken, something lost without repair
and I’d rather die before I go back there
some people have all the chances and some people have none
lay down your burden where the river runs
reason and morality you can put them aside
flowers for Andres Raya, in the alley where he died
no one will ever know who gave that last command
but one day there he was with a rifle in his hand
with the shattered reality crackin’ like a whip on his back
and the streets of his home town lookin’ like the streets of Iraq
look across the field see the enemy closin’ in
it’s the local police but it didn’t look that way to him
take a good position let the firefight begin
200 rounds later, 2 dead, him and one of them
some people have all the chances and some people have none
lay down your burden where the river runs
reason and morality you can put them aside
flowers for Andres Raya, in the alley where he died
he had his last tour of duty in the town that he grew up in
fighting a war that nobody could win
like a marionette on slippery wire
he was killed in the alley by enemy fire
some people only want answers that are easy to take
nothing so hard that the bubble might break
there’s questions to ask and there are answers to decide
and there are flowers in the alley where Andres Raya died
some people have all the chance and some people have none
lay down your burden where the river runs
reason and morality you can put them aside
flowers for Andres Raya, in the alley where he died
------------------------
Anna Mae
Anna Mae came to the plains I’m told
blow Dakota blow
from way up east where the weather gets cold
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
and she said “I hear there’s been trouble down here”
blow Dakota blow
they said “trouble - we been gettin’ trouble every year”
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
Anna Mae made a vow by the fire that night
blow Dakota blow
that she would give her life to the people’s fight
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
then the voice in the whispering wind did say
blow Dakota blow
“somebody’s gonna get hurt some day”
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
in nineteen hundred seventy-two
blow Dakota blow
trouble in the Pine Ridge settlement grew
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
in nineteen hundred seventy-three
blow Dakota blow
the trouble exploded at Wounded Knee
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
in nineteen hundred seventy-four
blow Dakota blow
there was a backlash beatin’ at everybody’s door
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
then the warning passed from tongue to tongue
blow Dakota blow
that there was trouble a-comin’ with a federal gun
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
they took Anna Mae off to jail one day
blow Dakota blow
but just exactly why they never would say
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
they wanted some facts and they wanted some names
blow Dakota blow
oh but Anna Mae wouldn’t tell ‘em a thing
but the cold Dakota winds they blow
she said “you can kill me dead or lock me away
blow Dakota blow
‘cause that’s what you’re gonna be doin’ anyway”
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
then they said “all right, you’re free to go
blow Dakota blow
but just don’t say we never warned you so”
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
Anna Mae went out for a walk one night
blow Dakota blow
but she never lived to see the morning light
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
oh it’s a mystery, I heard it said
blow Dakota blow
how Anna Mae died with a bullet in her head
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
the story spread both far and wide
blow Dakota blow
how another daughter of the people had died
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
and the people came from many a mile
blow Dakota blow
to lay her away in traditional style
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
and the song upon the drum was sung
blow Dakota blow
and the sky covered over and the storm did come
and the cold Dakota winds they blow
and the voice in the howling wind did say
blow Dakota blow
“somebody’s gonna pay some day”
for the cold Dakota winds that blow
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