Pearls Before Swine

[thatgemguy]

It was a day to work outside in the yard. I have a small FM transmitter connected to my computer that I use to "broadcast" music that I listen to while I work. Today I was listening to a CD of MP3 files of shortwave pirate radio programs.

One of the programs I listened to was "Radio Esoterica", and featured somewhat obscure music of the 60's. One of the songs stopped me cold, it is a relevant today as it was when it was released in 1967. The song is recognized as one of the earliest protest songs against the Viet Nam war.

"UNCLE JOHN"
performed by: Pearls Before Swine
written by: Tom Rapp
_____________________________

The wind winds the platform
Blows through your suit creases
You want us
To crucify the enemy for Jesus
With your chamber-of-commerce soul
You talk of war so bold
God is on our side, but
He's lost in your wallet-fold

And the widows a-sighing
The children a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John

You pull out your Sunday God
And hold him up so proud
And say he is with us
To the Applauding crowd
But the burn-blackened place
The shredded disfigured face
Don't say that God is Love
They say that you are Hate

And the widows a-sighing
The children a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John

You stand up on the platform
With the flag wrapped all around you
And tell us that the Bible says
To fight for it we're bound to
But the Red's for the blood we lose
The White's for the gauze they use
To cover burned-out blackened men
The rest is for the bodies numb and Blue

And the widows a-sighing
The children a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John


You'll never hear this one on corporate radio!!!

[teach1st]

1. Listen here...

http://www.tuff-teach.com/pics/unclejohn.mp3

[cynatnite]

3. Incredible!!

What a potent song! I had chills!

I'll listen to this often. Thanks!

[babylonsister]

2. You said it all. It is relevant today. Thank you for this. nt

[teach1st]

4. Another Pearls anti-war song

(Technically a Tom Rapp solo album, but Tom Rapp was Pearls Before Swine)

http://www.tuff-teach.com/pics/fourth.mp3

"Fourth Day Of July"
By Tom Rapp

And it came to pass on the first day of July
The last man home from Vietnam was going to arrive
The ship came in so silently, its bow a ghostly white
And when they looked upon the decks, there was not a man inside

Then the sea began to roll and from the ship a moaning
A line of broken children, all from the ship a-coming
The light of death was in their eyes
The broken children of Vietnam
On the first day of July

Like a war beyond control, to Washington at dawn
A line of ghostly children upon the White House lawn
Grown men did turn away, not to see it anymore
To see the burning child running to the White House door
No one found a place to hide
The burning children of Vietnam
On the second of July

All across America a line ten miles long
The dead children all coming home
From the land of Vietnam
To men who got too far away
From what was done in their name
Someday must all have to pay
Who never saw a child die
The dead children all coming home
Four days in July

On every door and window across this sad gray land
A mark that would never go away of a thousand thousand hands
A voice like voices in a dream
A voice like somebody else's scream
Or not somebody else's scream
A voice within a fire
The burning children of Vietnam
On the third day of July

Then they came upon the sea, it did open up before them
A line of children all with wounds, upon the ocean walking
Then the sky began to rain
And beat the land with tears of rage
And every year upon that day if a hundred years go by
It rains upon America
On the fourth day of July