Pete Seeger - God Bless The Grass (1998) by Pete Seeger (보컬) on maniadb.com

Chorus:
Seventy miles of wind and spray,
Seventy miles of water,
Seventy miles of open bay--
It's a garbage dump.

What's that stinky creek out there,
Down behind the slum's back stair
Sludgy puddle, sad and gray?
Why man, that's San Francisco Bay.

(CHORUS)

Big Solano and the Montecelle'
Ferry boats, I know them well,
Creek and groan in their muddy graves
Remembering San Francisco Bay

(CHORUS)

Joe Ortega and the Spanish crew
Sailed across the ocean blue
Came into the mighty Bay
Stood on the decks and cried, "Ole"

(CHORUS)

Fill it here, fill it here.
Docks and tidelands disappear,
Shaky houses on the quaky ground
The builder, he's Las Vegas bound

(CHORUS)

Dump the garbage in the Bay
City fathers say, "Okay,
When cries of anguish fill the air,
We'll be off on the Riviere."

(CHORUS)

There's a cement octopus sits in Sacramento, I think,
Gets red tape to eat, gasoline taxes to drin,
And it grows by day and it grows by night
And it rolls over everything in sight.
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.

Who knows how the monster started to grow that way;
Its parents are frightened and wish it would go away.
But the taxes keep coming, they have to be spent
On big bull dozers and tanks of cement,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.

That octopus grows like a science-fiction blight,
The Bay and the Ferry building are out of sight,
The trees that stood for a thousand years,
We watch them falling through our tears
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.

Dear old MacLaren won't take this lying down,
We can hear his spirit move in the sandy ground,
He built this Eden on the duney plain,
Now they're making it a concrete desert again,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.

The men on the highways need those jobs, we know
Lets put them to work planting new trees to grow.
Building new parks where kids can play,
Pushing that cement monster away,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery

God bless the grass that grows through the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.

God bless the truth that fights toward the sun,
They roll the lies over it and think that it is done
It moves through the ground and reaches for the air,
And after a while it is growing everywhere,
And God bless the grass.

God bless the grass that breaks through cement,
It's green and its tender and it's easily bent,
But after a while it lifts up its head,
For the grass is living and the stone is dead.
And God bless the grass.

God bless the grass that's gentle and low
Its roots they are deep and its will is to grow.
And God bless the truth, the friend of the poor,
And the wild grass growing at the poor man's door,
And God bless the grass

Come fill up your glasses and set yourselves down.
I'll tell you a story of somebody's town.
It isn't too near and it's not far away.
It's not a place where I'd want to stay.

[Chorus:]
Now the people are scratching all over the street
Because the rabbits had nothing to eat.

The winter came in with a cold icy blast.
It killed off the flowers and killed off the grass.
The rabbits were starving because of the freeze.
They started eating the bark off the trees.

[Chorus]

The farmers said, "This sort of thing just won't do.
Our trees will be dead when the rabbits get through.
We'll have to poison the rabbits, it's clear;
Or we'll have no crops to harvest next year."

[Chorus]

So they brought the poison and spread it around.
And soon dead rabbits began to be found.
Dogs ate the rabbits and the farmers just said,
"We'll poison those rabbits 'til the last dog is dead."

[Chorus]

Up in the sky there were meat-eating fowls.
The dead rabbits poisoned the hawks and the owls.
Thousands of field mice the hawks used to chase
Were multiplying all over the place.

[Chorus]

The fields and the meadows were barren and brown.
The mice got hungry and moved into town.
The city folks took the farmer's advise
And all of them started to poison the mice.

[Chorus]

There were dead mice in all the apartments and flats.
The cats ate the mice and the mice killed the cats.
The smell was awful and I'm glad to say
I wasn't the man hired to haul them away.

[Chorus]

All through the country and all through the town
There wasn't a dog or cat to be found.
The fleas asked each other, "Where can we stay?"
They've been on the people from then 'til this day.

[Chorus]

All you small creatures that live in this land
Stay clear of the man with the poisonous hand!
A few bails of hay might keep you alive
But he'll pay more to kill you than let you survive.

[Chorus]

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Written By PETE SEEGER, ERNIE MARRS, HAROLD MARTIN
Lyrics © SANGA MUSIC INC

Sailing down my dirty stream
Still I love it and I'll keep the dream
That some day, though maybe not this year
My Hudson River will once again run clear

It starts high in the mountains of the north
Crystal clear and icy trickles forth
With just a few floating wrappers of chewing gum
Dropped by some hikers to warn of things to come

At Glens Falls, five thousand honest hands
Work at the consolidated paper plant
Five million gallons of waste a day
Why should we do it any other way?

Down the valley one million toilet chains
Find my Hudson so convenient place to drain
And each little city says, "Who, me?
Do you think that sewage plants come free?"

Out in the ocean they say the water's clear
But I live right at Beacon here
Half way between the mountains and sea
Tacking to and fro, this thought returns to me

Well it's Sailing up my dirty stream
Still I love it and I'll dream
That some day, though maybe not this year
My Hudson and my country will run clear

Twas in the merry month of May
When green buds all were swelling,
Sweet William on his death bed lay
For love of Barbara Allen.

He sent his servant to the town
To the place where she was dwelling,
Saying you must come, to my master dear
If your name be Barbara Allen.

So slowly, slowly she got up
And slowly she drew nigh him,
And the only words to him did say
Young man I think you're dying.

He turned his face unto the wall
And death was in him welling,
Good-bye, good-bye, to my friends all
Be good to Barbara Allen.

When he was dead and laid in grave
She heard the death bells knelling
And every stroke to her did say
Hard hearted Barbara Allen.

Oh mother, oh mother go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow,
Sweet William died of love for me
And I will die of sorrow.

And father, oh father, go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow,
Sweet William died on yesterday
And I will die tomorrow.

Barbara Allen was buried in the old churchyard
Sweet William was buried beside her,
Out of sweet William's heart, there grew a rose
Out of Barbara Allen's a briar.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard
Till they could grow no higher
At the end they formed, a true lover's knot
And the rose grew round the briar.

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Lyrics Powered by LyricFind
Written By MERLE TRAVIS
<i>Lyrics &copy; EMI Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.</i>

From way up here the earth looks very small,
It's just a little ball of rock and sea and sand,
No bigger than my hand.

From way up here the earth looks very small,
They shouldn't fight at all
Down there upon that little sphere.
Their time is short, a life is just a day,
You think they'd find a way.
You think they'd get along
And fill their sunlit days with song.

From way up here the earth is very small,
It's just a little ball, so small, so beautiful and dear.
Their time is short, a life is just a day,
Must be a better way
To use the time that runs among the distant suns.

From way up here the earth is very small,
It's just a little ball, so small, so beautiful and dear

King Henry marched forth, a sword in his hand
Two thousand horsemen all at his command
In a fortnight the rivers ran red through the land
The year, fifteen hundred and twenty

The year is now nineteen sixty five
It's easier far to stay alive
Just keep your mouth shut while the planes zoom and dive
Ten thousand miles over the ocean

Simon was drafted in sixty-three
In sixty-four, sent over the sea
Last month this letter he sent to me
He said, "You won't like what I'm saying"

He said, We've no friends here, no hardly a one
We've got a few generals who just want our guns
But it will take more than them if we're ever to win
Why, we'll have to flatten the country

It's my own troops I have to watch out for, he said
I sleep with a pistol right under my head
He wrote this last month, last week he was dead
And Simon came home in a casket

I mind my own business, I watch my TV
Complain about taxes, but pay anyway
In a civilized manner, my forefathers betray
Who long ago struggled for freedom

But each day a new headline screams at my bluff
On TV some general says, "We must be tough"
In my dreams I stare at this family I love
All gutted and spattered with napalm

King Henry marched forth, a sword in his hand
Two thousand horsemen all at his command
In a fortnight the rivers ran red through the land
The year, fifteen hundred and twenty

The year is now nineteen sixty five
It's easier far to stay alive
Just keep your mouth shut while the planes zoom and dive
Ten thousand miles over the ocean