Verse 1

We will always remember (3x)

The ones who were taken away

Verse 2

We will never surrender (3x)

Our whole humanity

Verse 1

I woke walking down the midway, though I couldn’t feel my feet–

Plainclothes clowns, the carnies, marks, the music with no beat,

All swirling like the Wheel of Fortune, swooping like the Raging Mouse,

Sugared by the candy floss beside the Terror House.

Drifting fast against the current, drawn as by the tide,

Jostled by the knots and eddies met on every side,

Turning now towards a goal some other mind has set,

Seeking something still unknown, some being yet unmet.

Pre-Chorus

What is here to love, and what is here that I can learn?

Where is the ledger, and can the light begin to burn?

Whose is the face behind the screen that we just won’t see?

And whose are those fingers, scribing edicts soon to be?

Verse 2

Now seated at a table, cards fanned out in my hand,

I gaze into the steely eyes of an enigmatic man.

I can’t seem to recall if we have met before this day,

And I don’t recall the faces on the cards I need to play.

Prechorus

Chorus

Why, oh why, am I so alone?

And why does freedom always dog me so?

Somewhere a keycard unlocks simplicity,

Calms the numbers, like rolling breakers on the sea.

But it’s one plus one plus one plus one

Plus something I can’t read–

Plus numbers on the mortgage,

Plus a house without a deed.

Now multiply by flood risk, and the prevalence of flame,

Dividing by the inverse of the index of your shame.

Why do we always feel alone?

And why does freedom always dog us so?

(Interlude)

Verse 3

Now, round the corner here and also far away,

My calculations differ from the ones you face today.

But lose the glasses, take the chance, say what you need to say,

And we’ll reason out together if we really need to play.

Chorus

Verse 1

Upstream bound upon black waters–

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Blankets, powder, guns and rum–

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Pack them deerskins down to Charlestown–

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Ship them off to the rising sun.

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Chorus

Hold fast early in the morning,

Hold fast when the water flows.

Hold fast, as best as you’re able,

‘Til the bell has rung, or the whistle blows.

Verse 2

Eighteen thousand bound for a lifetime–

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Stolen homes, and kin, and names–

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Cypress gone, all sawn into rice trunks–

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Snakes, sawgrass and skeeters remain–

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Chorus

Bridge

Cabarrus County, ‘ninety-nine,

Young Conrad found a pretty stone,

Small, but heavy for its size–

He took a shine, and brought it home.

It brought conversation, upon occasion,

Propping open the parlor door,

‘Til a city jeweler told John Reed

“I b’lieve I could show that in my store.”

Well, John Reed swore and John Reed argued,

Pushing, and pushing, and pushing for more,

‘Til at last he took three dollars fifty,

Satisfied he’d made a score.

Three thousand dollars for that doorstop–

All that haggling, all that jive!--

That’s the word came back to Reed,

Who swore he’d been “skint alive.”

Verse 3

John Reed’s partners scoured his country–

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Them, or slave folk that they’d send.

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Boy Peter found near a thirty-pound nugget,

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

But that’s a story still without an end.

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Four hundred thousand bound for a lifetime

Carolina gold, woe Carolina!

Bondage gone, still the scars remain.

Woe Carolina, Carolina gold!

Bridge 2

One day we’ll hear that sweet bell ring,

And see more peaceful waters flow.

We’ll lay our saws and hammers down,

To breathe and stretch in twilight’s glow.

Chorus

Chorus 2 (Coda)

Hold fast early in the morning,

Hold fast, though the storm winds blow.

Hold fast, as best as you’re able,

‘Til the work is over–

‘Til the work is over–

‘Til the work is over, and

Justice flows.

Intro

Bad news is blowing in the wind

And dripping like cold rain

Lies, greed and inequality,

Oppression, theft, and pain–

Truth upended; love askew;

Sacred duty turned untrue.

You’d think there’d never be a way

To see the light again.

Verse

But abandon despair; there’s always a way.

There’s fuel to be gathered and tinder to fray.

There’s ground to be cleared and there’s firebreaks to cut,

There is kindling to split, and there's fire to lay.

We’ll be bending our backs, we’ll be lifting and stacking,

We’ll be looking and thinking and checking what’s lacking.

We’ll be spreading our tinder, then striking the spark

And tending our light in a half-globe of dark.

We will act as we’re able to maintain the right,

And nourish our flame in the warm firelight.

Verse 1

I’m wearing frying pans instead of shoes (2x)

See how I suffer with the substitution blues!

Verse 2

Dory has her causes, she’s got the nightly news (2x)

Got my suspicions she’s got the substitution blues.

Verse 3

If Ram had wings, then Ram would fly (2x)

But he’s got a quarter bottleful of cheap, familiar rye.

Bridge

We trade out sex for loving, then swap out porn for sex,

Replace that with some piety, then Lord knows what comes next.

Could be pumps, high-tops, stilettos, or some funky breed of slingback shoes–

We all suffer from those substitution blues.

Verse 4

We all wear frying pans instead of shoes (2x)

Lord, how we suffer from the substitution blues!

Verse 1

You tell me you don’t want evolution

So you hide your head.

You say you love the Constitution,

Bowing to a golden calf instead.

Don’t you want to live in four dimensions,

Not just cardboard, not just stone?

Don’t you yearn to feel fully human,

Warm and solid, flesh and bone?

Verse 2

You’re calling for a revolution,

Just another fall.

You know you haven't got a solution,

So now you want to burn it all.   

Would you love just to be human?

Uniting earth, air, water, fire?

Lose that shadow that you feel looming,

Lift the curse and leap the pyre?

Chorus 1

If you want it to be all right

You’ve got to make it be all right

You cannot fake it. To be all right,

You’ve got to say you could be wrong.

Verse 3

You say that you know better than any,

Truth is on your screen.

You say your chat buddy is great fun,

But IRL, they’re never seen.

Come and try it now, just be human!

Test the water, taste the air.

Ditch the tragedy you’ve been grooming.

Night is sweet and day is fair.

Chorus 2

If you want it to be all right

We’ve got to make it be all right

You cannot fake it. To be all right,

We’ve got to know we all belong.

Chorus

Mantled deep, or shining forth in snow,

Equal blessings you bestow upon us all–

Slow as stone, or swift as glacial waters flow.

Verse

Alaska Gulf waters rise, then fall, as snow–

Feeding icy tongues that nourish with their flow.

Asters, eagles, shrews and spruce, 

Caribou and hunters, come and search and go.

Chorus

Verse 1

False consciousness, the sound of one hand clapping

False consciousness, the stroke of ebon wing 

False consciousness, the trickster tricked for better

False consciousness has twisted everything.

Chorus

But the straight way may not always be the better way

And it's failure turned the brine into the stone.

It's the fission of perfection that gives rise to all that lives,

While the ideal stays frozen, pure, and stark alone.

Verse 2

False consciousness, a ring without an ending

False consciousness for every pig that flies.

False consciousness, the ninja 'round the corner,

Or a heaping bowl of sweet and creamy lies.

Chorus

Bridge

Still I try hard to clear out all the cobwebs and stay straight

Clambering through the bushes, rocks, and trees.

I've had a few hard looks into the mirror–

It can be a pretty frightening sight to see.

Verse 3

False consciousness, red spruces on the hillside–

False consciousness, the smoke that blinds your eyes

False consciousness unlocks the bags and boxes,

And sends you reeling 'cross a bridge of sighs.

Chorus

Verse 1

Everybody saw the pictures on the television;

Everybody heard the stories on the radio.

There were photo-spreads and articles and squibs and features;

There was every opportunity for all to know.

So we knew about the bombing and we knew about the shooting;

We saw the pressure hoses and the dogs’ attack.

We heard about the redlines and the double standards;

We tried to shrug it off, but it kept coming back.

Chorus

Earl said “My people been put down.”

Earl said “My people been done down.”

Earl said “My people, they’ve been beat down.”

Earl said “My people been shot down.”

Bridge 1

Still, everybody knew that the times they were a-changin’;

Everybody heard the music on the radio.

There were happenings and musicals and raps and movies;

How long could it take for the nightmares to go?--

Though the killers kept on killing; the beaters kept on beating;

And the liars kept on whispering their sweet refrain

In between the fashion spreads that puffed ‘liberation’,

Substitutes for soma sweet as summer rain.

Chorus & Instrumental

Verse 2

And fifty years on it still sticks in my head–

Yes, the words that he wrote, but more the shock that I felt.

It was nothing top secret, nothing confidential;

It was just barely news, that simple truth that he dealt.

A thought that kept nagging, a feeling to ponder,

And no explanation that promised to flatter.

It wasn’t bare facts, but their emotional weight:

Not just what happened, but how much it should matter.

Chorus

Bridge 2

Verse 1

It’s a cold, cold day for justice,

And it’s cold in the wind and the snow and the sun and the rain.

And it’s cold in the hallowed halls of desecration,

And I’m lacing up my marching shoes again. 

Verse 2

They say that love always conquers,

And mercy, compassion and fellowship always remain.

And I guess that it’s true; me and you are still here watching,

As we’re lacing up our marching shoes again.

Bridge

Somewhere a sweet breeze caresses the skin like a lover;

Somewhere this melody turns down a sweeter byway.

Somewhere the parts don’t attempt to usurp each other.

Somewhere there’s no marching shoes to put away.

Verse 3

It’s a cold, cold day for justice,

Though we know that the heat that will follow will surely bring pain.

Now it’s cold in the hallowed halls of desecration–

Time for lacing up those marching shoes again.