Well, we bursted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a 3-minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes
And follow your dreams down
Chorus:
Well, we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Well, now young faces grow sad and old
And hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
Now I'm ready to grow young again
And hear your sister's voice calling us home
Across the open yards
Well maybe we'll cut someplace of own
With these drums and these guitars
'Cause we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
You say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath
Peaceful skies in my lover's bed
With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head
Once we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in a stormy night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
I guess we don't get to sleep beneath peaceful skies....with romantic dreams in our heads. Not our lot. Not our destiny.
Too bad. So sad. Sucks to be us.
The war is raging on the streets of our country, and I did promise—when I was young—to never retreat or surrender in the face of attempts to limit my freedom.
And Goddamnit!... forty fucking years later...now, dappled with age spots and arthritis....I'm called on to honor that promise.
At least I have a lot more guns now than I did then.
The Gunslinger
(Rebel with a cause)
As soon as your born they make you feel small,
ReplyDeleteBy 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 peasents 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.
Of course,that was John Lennon,who was full of contradictions,but at least he always honestly believed what he believed at the moment. "Attempts to limit my freedom..." -well said! THAT's my main point of debate with "fellow rock'n'rollers". "You hated 'Big Brother' when Reagan,Bush et al were in power,but now you excuse Obama's power-grabs? Everything he does results in fucking over the working man and woman!"
ReplyDeleteToo many R&Rollers think "Libertinism" is Liberty, and ignore the real assaults on freedom while fighting for the "right" to smoke dope or curse on television.
ReplyDeleteYou know, G-S, it really does suck to be old, but ya' know something, Fine Lady: I'm glad its still up to us to correct our mistakes, to make it right if we at all can.
ReplyDeleteI wanted the 'revolution' in '76 and not one damn squeak came from anyone else. Now I hear lots of squeaks and, like you, feel the aches of age, but am glad that maybe I can still help set things right again.
Shy III