David Rovics

In 1492 Colombo crossed the Ocean Only one of many horrors that would then be set in motion As his men cut limbs of Arawaks and burned children at the stake Plundering a continent for God's sake In 1492 when King Ferdinand won Granada He passed a la...

As I was being arrested A reporter stuck a mike in my face I said the first few words that came to mind If there's hope for the human race (then we need) 15 dollars an hour (3x) 15! They say this is a democracy But there's none of that on the job Jus...

The famine had affected many people From Ireland to the shores of the Baltic Sea The soaring cost of food meant it took most of your earnings Which meant the shutting down of much of industry But no one knows for sure why the rebellion began Or why i...

I was a cynic long before we met I think that's how it tends to be You go around the block, that's where you get And that's how it was with you and me But there isn't a single day that passes by When I don't ask if I could've made the grade When I don't...

There was a time when the rich did not pay tax Although they lived in mansions while their workers lived in shacks Back then the wise men said as long as enterprise is free The future will be full of great prosperity The sick and unemployed would usual...

When the bomb went off that killed your mother And you left at midnight with your sister and your father When you spent your first night sleeping amid the mortars As your family made its way to the Turkish border As you saw the dead and dying all aroun...

America has never been so great, but it could be If the corporations in control gave back everything they stole We would not be in this ditch, the whole country would be rich We could've been the best, like the Norway of the west But instead from shor...

He was 46 years old, he had 2 parking places He got angry if one of the residents took one of the visitor spaces In the apartment complex that might provide one little clue That this middle-aged man had accomplished little that he set out to do He spe...

Atif and Sebastian lived in Vancouver That's where they were from Atif's family moved to the USA And Sebastian thought he'd come They both went off to college Atif to Cornell What would happen at the end of his freshman year Who on Earth could foretell...

There’s a bottle on the floor And milk all over your face I don’t know what you’re eating But it’s all over the place There is a bowl of beans Beside your teddy bear But now you’ve dunked your hands in it And smeared it in your hair Yeah, babies are a...

Some babies like to ride in strollers Other babies like to ride in cars Some babies like to jump on pogo sticks Other babies like to get pickled in jars Some babies like to get wrapped in towels And drag around a rag My baby she likes to get right inside...

I'm from Seattle And I'll tell you my tale I grew up by the water I was born in a pail I'm a dung beetle Just like my friends But sadly that's where the Similarity ends I'm a dung beetle That normally means I would eat dung Not carrots or beans Ye...

When I came to this country, left Scotland far behind Evicted from the highlands, told to go and find A new life in America across the Atlantic Sea Where I joined the millions of other refugees Who ended up at Ellis Island as the century began The wr...

There are a lot of white men in this world who turn out a lot like Dean Schmitz – homophobic, racist, bigoted and mean He grew up to be a hard man, did the things that hard men do Picked fights, went to prison, got a swastika tattoo CeCe McDonald is a...

Saed Bannoura is a friend of mine But I'm lucky to know him, to be sure He is from a land called Palestine From the town of Beit Sahur His house was a mile from where Jesus was born And a mile from a military base He grew up under occupation Such...

She grew up in Texas on a military base As a teen in California she found her place Standing up with those who had got the shorter straw Speaking out for justice on both sides of the law She came to my attention in 1998 When she was elected and she joine...

Millions of people from the colonies Were living in the far-away cities Home of those who killed their country Who tried for over a century To bring Jesus back to Africa From Mali to Algeria And they fired into the protesters Dumped them in the r...

When the world has gone crazy And it's all becoming clear When they're gunning down our comrades And it seems the end is near As they're loading up the launchers For the tear gas grenades We can take off our bandanas And kiss behind the barricade...

Soup is cooking in the cauldron, there's a freight train passing by A plane streaking through the night air way up in the sky Nearby the leaves are shimmering and they rustle in the breeze Blowing smoke upon our faces and on the guitars on our knees Lik...

Then began the nightmare All over once again The revolution's debtor's prisons Filled with good upstanding men We said to hell with King John Adams Of this farce we'd had our fill And we set our sights on liberty Here in the Berkshire hills Their cour...

I came down with a cold Now it's getting pretty old I'm so tired of feeling this a-way I don't know what to do I just wish it would be through And I could just wake up another day I'm just dragging all around I get up and then fall down Being...

I remember when we met Surrounded by police It was the one block in the city Where protest was allowed And they were there to keep the peace You said hey my name is Brad And I think we surely will Mess up these meetings These people will remember us I...

They say he acted alone for a Europe white and free A sick and twisted man from an otherwise sane society The image of Aryan blond, almost iridescent With a manifesto quoting from the Crusades to the present But he stood on many shoulders, of this we can b...

There's a Hollywood star, there's the company There's the Superbowl, there's lots of money There's the stolen land, there's the minimum wage There's international law, there's the world stage There's the ambassador, there's the rubbish bin There's the big...

I went to play at the playground To do things I like so much Run with my friends, play make believe Swing on the swings and such But this morning I went to the playground And bullies were guarding the swings They knocked over the slide, dumped out...

Rodney Coronado was arrested for a speech That he gave one evening by the San Diego beach He stated his opinions, they sounded just like mine And now they want to put him behind bars til 2029 The prosecutor said the problem was the speech it showed intent...

The far right has many members in the ranks of the police This is undoubtedly true from the USA to Greece Among the most notable cases is the PPB Who kill more black men per capita than any department in the country But the leader of the Vice Squad deserve...

1831, the age of industry begun For the working folk of Wales, life was short With wages cut again it was only sensible that then Folks took over and shut down the debtors' court The gentry pulled the wire, told their men to open fire And restore th...

Did you see them praying and the Army marching in As they clubbed old women did you see the general grin Watch the stones fly and the snipers taking aim On Shatila's birthday, it's a calculated game They're gunning down the children of Jerusalem Did you...

Church bells are ringing, families are wearing their Sunday best Choirs are singing, red sun is setting in the west A soldier is yelling, standing tall Checkpoint is closing outside a giant wall It's Christmas Eve in Bethlehem Tourists are coming – birth...

We wake up in the morning, get out of our warm bed My daughter often asks me about something someone said Often asking questions, why things are the way they are Watching Portland passing by from the back seat of the car As we drove across the bridge,...

When we look at history and how it's all unwound There are few people on the planet that have been more tightly bound With the liberation of our troubled human race Than the man from Santiago with the beard upon his face Dressed in green fatigues that...

I am a fisherman, so were my parents Here in Cordova on Prince William Sound I'm not a treehugger but I love the mountains And hauling in the gill net with the ocean all around Life was good here, you could raise a family With a hundred thousand tons of H...

Most kids go to school And I thik that's OK But it seems awfully boring To be sitting there all day 1+1 is 2 2+2 is 4 A-B-C-D-E-F-G I think I know the score (But) I know what I want to do I have got a plan I'll travel 'round the world In...

When we heard the news that we were to be arrested We had no doubt exactly what our fate would be We had hours to get out, only hours to be tested For five thousand people to cross the Baltic Sea We had to go at night in the cover of the darkness Th...

Wohin auch das Auge blicket Moor und Heide nur ringsum Vogelsang uns nicht erquicket Eichen stehen kahl und krumm Wir sind die Moorsoldaten und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor Hier in dieser öden Heide ist das Lager aufgebaut wo wir fern von j...

If your rent has doubled there are different ways To cope with the situation and make it through your days There are therapeutic methods, such as playing darts With a picture of your landlord's private body parts You can get a roommate, or 2 or 3 or 4...

When I was a little kid I was kinda small A bit bigger than a grasshopper Maybe two feet tall So when I had to use the john I'd get up with a hop Plant my feet upon the toilet seat And I'd squat on top This usually worked just fine But one d...

MacLeod is a common name, though it used to be more common Way across the ocean in Scotland But then developers came and the MacLeods all had to leave From the hills they call the Highlands Lots of them came here to North America There are some in Po...

Steel birds streak through the sky above the Syrian Levant The pilot flew the plane all the way from Nantes Explosions rock the cities in this proxy civil war So many innocents killed, they've long since lost the score Jean-Pierre fired a missile and w...

I grew up on this mountain Came back here to dwell Maybe have a family Plant some corn and dig a well I was all done with the Army Back from Vietnam Where I learned how to shoot a rifle And how to set a bomb I grew up on this mountain It's in my very...

Once upon a time I read books and magazines Then along came email, I thought that was pretty keen I got on some good listservs, that was pretty neat It was all so interactive, I was in the driver's seat Then along came social media, that's when I lost...

When you're working two jobs and living in a tent When a house costs a million bucks and you can't pay the rent When politicians say they'll help but it keeps getting worse Each time the landlord lobby pulls the strings of the purse When the human righ...

An old woman approached me just the other day “I lived in Washington, DC,” she began to say “They all sang 'We Shall Overcome' back in 1964 Where did that all go now that it's needed even more?” I thought I should have an answer – I think I should now,...

There’s an upright piano and the church where it was played I can still hear the fire of the music that they made These wild priests of Coltrane as high as you could get Now their picture’s in the water with a broken clarinet And the bodies floating down t...

I grew up in the land of houses in rows I had asthma, that's how it goes When you're in LA and there are cars everywhere See the sky and smell the air I left home, looked around Trying to find some solid ground I found life in the northern wood And I kn...

He grew up in Jenin, where his neighbors lived and died With the things he’d seen, it was pretty cut and dried He could have been a fighter as so many others did He could have become a martyr like so many other kids Instead, he joined a circus troupe,...

Franz Jacob was a man, grandfather of a friend of yours He became an adult in between the world wars Some folks are born with silver spoons, they get an easy pass Not people like Franz Jacob, who was of the working class He was determined to change thi...

Gather round all you workers Whether you have a job or not You who pick the tomatoes You who grow the pot You who stay home to raise the children You that record the sound You who flip the burgers All you workers gather round Gather round all y...

One point eight million people surrounded on all sides Refugees since '48, since '67, occupied The only reason they're not starving is down to the UN Most have never left there, stuck in the lion's den The most crowded place on Earth, and there they'll sta...

I've moved out of three cities 'cause I couldn't pay the rent Folks like me weren't welcome so I packed it up and went It's always the same story, I find a place I wanna be And soon enough I'm joined by all the other refugees Then watch the websites warble...

He was born a rich man, then he got richer still By bribing politicians on Capitol Hill By declaring bankruptcy, by working with the mob By causing lots of Americans to lose their union jobs By exporting industries to sweatshops overseas By acting li...

I was raised in Guanajuato That's where I was born For a thousand years that's where My family grew the corn Farming's what we lived by And farming's all we knew Then the government signed Nafta And our farming days were through I had to leave the vill...

It was on one afternoon we headed down There in the twilight hour to the center of town Everyone was gathered as the sun began to fade For the annual excitement of the Halloween Parade There were jacolanterns lit up on every door There were ghosts and Av...

I grew up in Lawrence, there by the water In the shadow of a textile mill Sometimes I feel just like that building Empty but standing there still I liked the President, I liked the union I believed in the Rights of Man So I signed up when it was time to...

The town is mostly black, almost all the cops are white You can see it right away, something isn't right There's no funding for the schools and they're being shut down The powers that be don't give a shit about the town They were walking in the street, it...

They grew up among the bombs of the occupation Bulldozed houses, that was the situation Refugee camps, Khan Yunus and Shatila Children gunned down in the Intifada Poverty and hunger, a place to slowly die These five men decided at least they had to try F...

Wake up in the morning, nowhere you can hide Just another suspect as soon as you go outside Just another suspect, one more man to fear Best be deferential if an officer is near Best be deferential, best wear a three-piece suit Or find the wrong end o...

Mommy said get in the car Let us go have tea I said I think that sounds boring I just wanna climb a tree I just wanna climb a tree Up in a tree, that’s where I wanna be Just like a little monkey I just wanna climb a tree Daddy said come down from the...

I know a man He has brown eyes Most mornings he gets up Around sunrise He likes to put butter On just about everything He likes to walk in the park Listen to the birds sing I know a man He has two gorgeous kids He likes to take them on trips Like h...

I lost my hat, mmm-mmm-mmm It’s a grey day, mmm-mmm-mmm I lost my hat, mmm-mmm-mmm It’s gone away, mmm-mmm-mmm I used to wear it all over the place It looked so good on top of my face It had a nice rim to keep out the sun Of all the hats in the world i...

I was born a refugee and I don't know if I'll ever see The old farmhouse I've heard about But it's where I belong, there is no doubt 'Cause my whole family is from that farm And we never did nobody harm And if you're confused by what you've heard Let me...

I don’t drive a car because they run on gas but if I did it’d run on biomass I ride a bike or sometimes a skateboard so fuck off all you drivers and your yuppie hordes sitting all day in the traffic queues I’m a better anarchist than you I don’t e...

I'm gonna fly up in the sky (3x) I'm gonna fly up there so high I'm gonna fly above the moon And I might not come back soon I'm gonna fly way out to Mars Just me, Mars and the stars I'm gonna head up to Saturn's rings I'm gonna see all kinds o...

I'm so tired of grownups telling me What I'm supposed to do today Do this, do that, do the other thing That's almost all they ever say I'm so tired of sitting in school all day It just seems so wrong I wanna get out and live my life So I think I'...

It's election time again and the battle's pretty tight On the left is Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump is on the right On the Democratic ticket there's a struggle for the base And Hillary is showing her most progressive face She says we know she's an outsi...

If I was a dog I’d scratch my belly I’d scratch it with my paw It would be the furriest belly That you ever saw Doggie, doggie, rr-ruf-ruf Doggie, doggie, rr-ruf-ruf Doggie, doggie, doggie-doggie-doggie Doggie, doggie, rr-ruf-ruf If I was a dog I wou...

I turned on my TV, though it was hard to see These men who'd be head of state What a great country, from sea to shining sea We watch the Republicans debate Newt stood with his third wife, and said you bet your life The president is a red He wants to tax...

If this were a war, if he were a soldier He'd find a well-defensible position He'd put on body armor if he were a sniper And set his sights with terrible precision If this were a war and he was somewhere overseas He'd be watching out for the other si...

They haven't even started cleaning up the mess How many souls departed is anybody's guess They're already proposing that they turn it up a notch It's time they were imposing an ever tighter watch Terrorists everywhere, by which they do not mean Norw...

If you've heard the news of the beheadings, seen the planes on bombing runs Read of the carnage at the weddings, heard about these men with guns Seen the photos of buildings mangled, the footage of the fields burned The shots of bodies left entangled, th...

In 1948 I fled my village The Stern Gang drove my family from the lands We ran into the desert Where I've spent these decades living by my hands Life in Haifa wasn't easy But so much better than this hellhole with the soldiers and barbed wire And the clo...

I woke up this morning And I turned on the news It was a Sunday morning They were sitting in the pews The doctor's wife was in the choir She was about to sing She saw it all in front of her And she heard that awful ring In the name of God he held his...

Netanyahu is in a tizzy, his eyes are filled with hate He said the problem with those Arabs is they won't recognize a Jewish state He said those Palestinians just won't come around To accepting Jewish rule on their holy ground He said the Arabs don't accep...

For about a century, there was a prohibition Which put a heck of a lot of people in a difficult position Each year millions went to prison for planting the wrong seeds Imprisoned for the crime of smoking weed Imprisoned in their millions, especially th...

It’s so windy Branches coming down It’s so windy Leaves are blowing ‘round It’s so windy And I just wanna sit here And watch the wind with you It’s so rainy It’s coming down in sheets It’s so rainy Puddles in the streets It’s so rainy And I just w...

Oh, child, what will you remember When you recall your sixteenth year The horrid sound of helicopter gunships The rumble of the tanks as they drew near As the world went about it's business And I burned another tank of gasoline The Dow Jones lost a coupl...

Joel Haglund came from Sweden Which was very far from Eden By the time he left most of his family died His sisters and his mother His father and his brothers So with one remaining sibling at his side He got a notion To sail across the ocean Whe...

Owen Brown was an abolitionist John was Owen's son He grew up in New England He was born in Torrington John Brown was a tanner And a man of many skills And he stood up for the workers Who toiled in the mills He stood up for the Indians He stood up for...

Ten thousand yuppies just moved here Ten thousand others came last year The rent has doubled since I moved in Each month I take it on the chin Each month I wonder how many more Can I stay in Portland before Before I move into my car Or end up som...

Khader Adnan grew up near Jenin City You could say he was a product of his time Ever since he was a kid he'd get arrested Though he was never charged with any crime Spending half his life in prison A life lived like so many of his friends Arbitrary and i...

Since the risings started there are many tales you could tell One person's liberation may be another's prison cell When authority collapses, many things can take its place Sectarian nightmares and liberated space Some are hunting for the heathens, set...

Two soldiers had been captured They’d crossed to the other side Two soldiers taken prisoner Several others died This is how it started So said the Jewish state Forget about ’96, ‘82, ’67, ‘48 Two soldiers taken hostage And by the Sea of Galilee We mus...

When Leila met Majnun it was at a traffic light He handed her his number at first sight It all happened very quickly, soon both of them were aware That life can be so good when it's shared When Leila met Majnun it was convenient, it would seem That...

The moss on the trees had an extra green glow And the squirrels all were singing The clouds in the sky looked like raspberry pie And all the telephones were ringing The guitars and fiddles were jumping around And they all had this to say Happy birthday,...

I’m writing you this letter ’cause among the choices It’s probably better than listening to voices Raging in my head, saying point and shoot Then after you’re dead, your face meets my boot I don’t know your name, it’s better that way ‘Cause I can’t p...

Do you often remember the day the soldiers came When you became a number, not a child with a name How oft do you recall that specific day When they sold your family home and took you away Banished to the desert to live in hot tar shacks Having no id...

When Lola was born the First World War Had only just ended 3 years before In '77 she took a flight She told a reporter who asked her that it was alright 2002 is the year that she died She lived in Manhattan on the Upper West Side If you look on the...

The cops shot another man, they have that kind of knack And it may not be coincidental that he was Black He was sitting in his car, they say he might have had a gun What we know for sure is he had five kids -- daughters and sons Now he cannot have a fa...

Luis Posada lived in Havana There amongst the gentry With the doctors and lawyers and mafia bosses He thought it was his country When the revolution came he left Just ninety miles away Then he signed up for a course At the SOA Luis Posada left Fort Be...

We could tackle the economy first – get rid of all the billionaires Set the system up so that instead of hoarding, people share Make housing, food, and health care basic human rights Around the world, for everyone is how we'd set our sights If we could...

Fifty heads of state came to threaten and to boast To articulate their mission and together make a toast To the new schemes they are hatching, to the next regime they'll change To the next nation they'll turn into a bombing range They hyped it in the radio...

There’s a chipmunk chewing on an acorn There’s a bluejay chewing on a worm Leaves are falling from the treetops Landing on the ground with a squirm There’s a cat sitting on the fence He says “meow meow meow” He’s a white cat with black spots And we all...

At 1 am on a Wednesday morning, no one knew what was in store A fire started and quickly spread until it covered every floor Stairwell blocked, no way out, smoke and fire all around Parents grabbed their little babies, dropped them ten floors to the grou...

A hundred years ago today the arms race was at an end If there was a soul alive who could begin to comprehend The suffering to follow, the hell that would transpire When the soldiers were lined up and the men began to fire A hundred years ago today, all a...

The clouds gather in your forests Drift to my desert town And I think of far-off places As the rain is coming down You’re bent down in the fields Picking fruit there from the vine And it ends up on my table As it moves on down the line The moo...

The city seems so small But the sidewalk seems so wide And the buildings seem so far away Even once I go inside My friend, his lips are moving I guess he’s talking to me But your words are echoing through my head Your face is all I see Now that you’re...

You ask me how it is that I dare to take a side You say I loathe myself for pointing out that you have lied You say it's tribal warfare but I disagree For the dynamics of the situation are not difficult to see On one side is the fighter jet, on the oth...

The wisdom a story imparts Usually depends on when it starts When it first became a state A grand convention, a great debate But in the end, understand Speculators owned the land To maximize the landlords' greed They'd only sell cotton seed So...

The treaty was rejected in 1992 Most Danish voters were afraid they already knew That it would not be a good thing to give away control To the likes of neoliberals like Mitterand and Kohl It was voted down, but then in 1993 The vote was held again fo...

It was another Friday afternoon, just after 4 o'clock The train trundled through the city, block by block The MAX was full of people of most every class and creed Shoppers, workers, travelers, graduates of Reed Christians, Buddhists, atheists, Jews and...

It's a long way from Nairobi, travel across the country To an arid northern little border town If you leave early in the day you'll still be on your way Long after the sun is going down It began as just a ride to the other side But then was interrupt...

Who killed all those people in Orlando Why did he do it, was it Islamic State Was it YouTube videos, the way they disseminate Was it radical imams preaching the jihad Saying go commit a massacre in the name of God Who killed all those people in Orla...

I was sitting on my daddy's shoulders To the hot springs we were bound He tripped and I fell off Now I'm lying on the ground Owie, owie, owie Owie-owie-owie-owie-owww (2x) I was looking out my window Sitting on the windowsill When the wind blew and I...

Last night I dreamed I lay in bed When an owl came to my windowsill She spread her wings and touched my cheek That dream I remember still She touched me and I floated up And drifted with the breeze Out the window, in the air Just above the trees...

My daddy was an Arab from Beersheva, a situation so unkind My momma was a refugee from Ramallah, had to leave her land behind I grew up in this refugee camp in this unwelcome land In this little parcel of Lebanon we were dealt a losing hand Then one day t...

Santa and his elves worked on the North Pole Making toys to take to kids around the Earth They worked all year to try to fill the orders Then they flew the toys from Portland out to Perth Then the whole economy collapsed And everyone was getting fired Sa...

Let me tell you the story of a hundred ships Traversing the great big sea Moving the riches of the world in large ships Owned by the captains of industry They were heading to places like Amsterdam London and LA But they had to change their plans a bit W...

I walked down the sidewalk A few blocks down the way Where there is a place That I really like to play And those little doggies They really leave their mark Those pretty puppies prancing playing Pooping in the park I like sliding on the slide And swi...

When I came outta my momma They cut my umbilical cord I thought hey man what are you doing And I let out a mighty roar I got my first piercing When they stabbed me with a pin Pumped me full of something And hit me in the shin Ever since that mo...

Rasmea was born in Palestine a year before she had to flee Her family left their home at gunpoint – since then she's been a refugee She lived a hard life in the camps, her dad had to move away Try to support his family from way out in Michigan, USA Wh...

They say the economy is booming tho on this there's much debate It depends on how well you're getting by Development is zooming, some folks think that's great And now you can legally get high But even that can't mask the pain that so many of us feel...

i can't help it. i don't care how far you think the analogy extends itself. when i see you making that bus driver climb up and down on and off the roof of his bus for your amusement for hours in the hot sun i think of how we once had to dance and sing fo...

Lots of folks are revolting They've had enough of this shit The rich are getting richer They're saying “that's it” But with Louk it's different, that's clear As he emerges from the fog Let's hear it for Loukanikos The ri - ot dog It's a fight between...

Papa’s in the kitchen making some eggs Hannae’s in her bedroom sleeping Our neighbor next door is making coffee I can smell it steeping I’m sitting here with my monkey We make such a mighty pair Looking out the window Rocking in a rocking chair Rockin...

You've been a politician for forty years Schmoozing with your landlord peers Governing for the millionaires Pretending that you really care About the regular folks who elected you About the renters that you screw You can call yourself a Democrat...

Listen to me, friends, from New York to California Consider for a moment Sulaymaniyah The last city volunteers would often see before They hiked over the mountain and joined the war For the freedom of the people of Rojava The enclave defended by RPG...

I live in the city I travel on the subway That is how I get around Usually once or twice a day It can be kinda dull Til one day that all changed When I was a-riding on a roller-coaster train I don't know quite what happened But something surel...

As I looked out my window At the clear blue sky At the planes that flew so low At the smoke that rose so high The air filled up with dust That blackened out the sun And the politicians went on About the new day that had begun And when I looked at my ca...

It's 1939 and the boats are coming But we can't have them here, that much at least is clear Our economy is poor, we can't just open up the door We've got problems of our own, they should just leave us alone And they're a tribalistic race, they keep a s...

So you wanna flip a house – you got some cash to burn You're looking at your options, what gets the best return You're looking at your options, the southeast or the northwest If you got some money where should you invest So you wanna flip a house, inv...

Sometimes I walk the aisles of the grocery store And I think about a day some 20 years before Where this chicken came from, south of the Mason Dixon Line The Imperial Foods factory in Hamlet, Caroline The third day of September, 1991 Where for so many goo...

I breathe the air that you do I drink the water just like you I eat the fruits of this land I hold the apple in my hand I am I feel the rain fall on my face Like the rest of the human race I hold my baby tightly when he cries I see him when I...

When I come to central Texas And I’m amid the shrubs and stone And I’m driving down the highway And I’m driving on my own It makes me think about a friend Who I knew not long ago Who lived beneath the moonlight On a ranch called Armadillo When I’m cru...

I think of summer festivals, I think of double dates I think of being searched by cops outside the prison gates I think of dark-haired women, one or two or maybe four I think of singing songs together, planning to sing more I think of Queensland summer...

Private Manning was an analyst if what they say is true She was paid to read reports and find the patterns sifting through As she read the data the patterns did emerge Patterns that were clear both before and since the Surge Patterns of abuse of the most ho...

He grew up in Yorkshire County On the class war battle lines From the age of 14 years He was working in the mines He saw the children dying Of hunger and disease His family was evicted And he headed overseas Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Was where he lande...

From every corner of the world They came from all around When in 1851 They struck gold upon the ground Every voyage was a long one Months upon the stormy sea Some to seek their fortune Others escaping slavery What they found on the goldfields Was rule...

In '48 they were driven out at the point of a machine gun Families fled in fear to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon They fled around the globe, firmly held in terror's grip And about a million refugees ended up in the tiny Gaza Strip In 1967 the IDF moved in And...

It was another Friday morning, I was among the olive trees Out looking for birds to catch – my father, his friends and me I had my string and net and a nimble eye There beside the farmers' fields where the songbirds fly When you're catching birds the worl...

My name is John Riley I’ll have your ear only a while I left my dear home in Ireland It was death, starvation or exile And when I got to America It was my duty to go Enter the Army and slog across Texas To join in the war against Mexico It was...

After all the Westerns, after all the lies After making every effort to deny That history is happening, that it isn't in the past That the Indian Wars continue, that Ishi was not the last After building all the pipelines, after spraying all the gas A...

He was listening to voices, talking in his head If you grew up in America you know exactly what they said And with every job we lose, however bad things get There's a black man in the White House on the TV set And we can blame it all on him and his ent...

Give us your huddled masses yearning to be free That's what it says on the Statue of Liberty And here they come, from the other side Across the southern border, across the great divide And now they're told that they should go away But the statue in the h...

People are marching against the chiefs of industry Who are trying to protect their intellectual property Secret negotiations to make a secret deal They've got Warner Brothers, Sony and the Presidential Seal They say they lobby on behalf of you and me,...

When I first showed up in Deutschland, camping on the Rhine The first town that I went to was also the first sign Of the kind of self-reflection that had gone on around here Indications everywhere, so shiny and so clear Look down at the sidewalk where...

He was raised in Gifu on the islands of Japan He was sent off to Manchuria, that's how this tale began For his next assignment in the diplomatic corps Was far-off Lithuania and the European war My grandfather was from Krakow – the Nazis came, he fled He t...

You wanna understand what happens today You gotta know how things got this way So let's back up from the present date And examine the history of a state As with the rest of this stolen land Mass murder is how it began From the first days of the Ter...

I found myself in Rostock to protest the G8 That was good but there's something else that I'd commemorate It started with a text message I got on my cell phone Eating in the Hotel Troika, sitting all alone I had just bought the SIM card only the day before...

It's September 11th and Obama gave a speech On the War on Terror and its mighty reach The arm of the law is long and victory will be ours As long as we cooperate with certain powers Such as the ones who funded the Islamic State The Saudis are our allies,...

I got a text from Tampa as the hurricane approaches The biggest ever seen We're seeking higher ground here, how are you out west In the land of the evergreens? I got a cloth upon my face, hibernating in place As the ash falls all around But at leas...

Every country in the world has a football team With matches at home and away That's how it is if you're a national squad You travel and you play But if you play for Palestine You never can be sure If you can make it out of your house And into the...

It was in the 1970’s, the fuel crisis had begun The choices were presented to us as if we had none Leaders of industry said they could solve the problem By mastering the power of the radioactive atom Some folks in western Jutland got a notion in their...

When she sat down in the dirt in front of your machine A lovely woman dressed in orange, you in military green If you had met her in Jerusalem you might have asked her on a date But here you were in Gaza rolling towards the gate As your foot went to the f...

I was hungry one afternoon I asked my daddy for some fruit He said wait just a sec I've got just the fruit to suit He went out and he came back With a grapefruit so he said But I tell you that that grapefruit Was bigger than my head He handed i...

Throughout the Second World War the Allies managed to unite In a broad front against fascism, but once they won this fight The ruling class convened, with McCarthy in the lead To make sure the people got in line, to be sure they all took heed To make su...

My great great grandfather was a refugee From a place called Ireland He didn't want to leave home, but when you're a slave Nothing goes how you might have planned Like most of the island, he had nothing to eat He survived by going away But if he ha...

Let me tell you about a lady known as grandma to me She died back in 1982 She liked to tell stories of how things used to be Just like other old ladies do She talked about her neighbors – Muslims and Christians Arabs, Britons and Jews They'd come over fo...

They were old when I was young Now they're all but passed away Now it's just a second hand Memory of the day When from all around the world They sailed off to Spain Where they fought against the fascists Where so many men were slain Who will recall the...

Robert Ross was from Rostrevor, he was born there in County Down His family was given land there by the British Crown He was a man born of the gentry, born with wealth and fame But he joined the British Army to serve his Queen and make his name In the...

I walked outside one day And a man was standing there He had a great big beard And lots and lots of hair He said won't you come down to the shore And join my jolly crew And we'll wander round the world Beneath the skies of blue We'll sail upon...

Katharina Jacob, long before she took that name Was organizing workers in Hamburg just the same Organizing beneath the flag of deepest red A new dawn of peace and freedom clearly shining in her head Katharina Jacob first was sent to jail When the tr...

It's a story everyone should know It happened a half century ago All across this sprawling nation The rising of a generation It started slow and then gained speed Nobody knew where it would lead First there were marches, then there were more Way...

They're building a wall – a wall between friends A wall that justifies any means for their ends A wall between Semites – rich and poor Brothers and sisters from not so long before Many feet thick and thirty feet high No one can look through it and into th...

There was a massacre in church that got certain forces moving Many towns are now at least superficially improving Such as in Virginia, where a statue of General Lee Stands as a reminder of the days of slavery In the city center, an indelible mark In...

I was hanging with my friends We were by a lake It seemed like a perfect place To take a little break We wandered 'round the lake Then we saw a boat We thought that we should just See if it might float I was trying hard to push it But that b...

It was a nice bar But I don’t want to sleep there Like a lump on someone’s Sofa chair So I drive the car To the outskirts of town Travelodge Jewel of the crown There’s a tea pot With sugar and cream There’s towels all folded At the seams The bed d...

Mohamed had a vegetable stand, this was his family's plight Ever since his father died on a construction site He was one of six siblings and now this would be his fate Working the streets of the city to put food on everybody's plate He couldn't afford the...

I know some kids who have two moms Others who have one I know some kids who have two dads Others who have none Now if they love their kids That's the real test But I'll tell you what I think Is the very best I have got two mommies But I'll t...

Under foreign rule and the British Crown's command His father fought for Ireland fifty years before But the Free State cut their losses and the English won the war And when internment without trial was the order of the day When his brother was arrested and...

Did you get up in the morning, see your kids off to school As you headed to the office was it hard to keep your cool When you saw the news and the picture of the boy On the beach just down the coast from the ancient town of Troy Did you think about the...

There was a coup in Guatemala, the CIA sent planes To assist the Guatemalan generals in tightening the chains Two hundred thousand Indians killed in thirty years As butchers of their people, the generals have no peers Where did they get their guns up to th...

I was born in Marakesh and I thought life was good Then some visitors came from far away, convinced my parents that we should Move from Marakesh to Israel, what they called the Promised Land That's how we ended up in Beersheva by the Negev Desert sand I tu...

The economy is crashing for so many of us Still riding in the back of the bus More like being thrown under the wheels If a light could be shown on how the other half feels As they pillage and plunder, do the privileged few Ever wonder what they're go...

I woke up one day Kissed my teddy on her head I pulled off the covers And I rolled out of bed But then I looked at my feet And I had to close my eyes Because what I saw Was just too much of a surprise My bed was far below me And I was nowher...

Portland is a town that's in the news much of the time There are a lot of vegans and there's very little crime It's a nice safe place to live, folks ride bicycles a lot The winters aren't so cold and the summers aren't so hot They build houses out of cob,...

What do you call it when a movement takes up arms And seizes power by the barrel of a gun Moves into the homes of those they've dispossessed And says this whole country is ours now that we've won What do you call a government that forces families from thei...

When I'm elected President the first thing that I'll do Nationalize all the banks and give all the money to you Raise taxes on the rich until there are no rich any more My government's first priority will be to win the class war When I'm elected President...

He got off the plane, looked at no one Walked down the tarmac in the direction of nowhere He followed the sun as it was setting Glad to be done with all the bloodletting There were no banners for the proud and the few Just workers in airports that do...

When I came home one morning There was a little cat I don’t know how we ended up With a cat like that But then what happened next Just eased my weary soul When that kitten started playing With a toilet paper roll Each time she attacked it It just rol...

It happened again last night, it happens every time I play When the gig is over someone has to say A question that appears to be on everybody's brains As they're driving down the highway in the commuter lanes It sure is not just me, it's the 99% Of artist...

I walk down the sidewalk Beside Powell Boulevard Past the men with 40 ouncers Passed out in the yard There's a boy of seven years Gazing at the sky With dreams of far-off places Wishing he could fly Away to join his father Wherever he may be...