Lives in the balance....

[walldude]

I added an acoustic version of this Jackson Browne song to my set list about 2 weeks ago. As I memorized the lyrics I didn't already know, I realized that this was written almost 25 years ago, but could have been written yesterday. Then I started to think about songs like War Pigs, Masters of War, If I had a Rocket Launcher, and many many others. All could have been written 50 years ago or last night. The more things change the more they stay the same.

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headline
and the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to her people
And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interests run

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say their names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

[dgibby]

1. You are very talented.

Thanks for sharing this, even if it is making me :cry:

K&R

[walldude]

3. Crap.. This isn't me it's Jackson Browne, I'm just covering it.

I am working on some stuff though. I'll post it when it's ready.

Gonna edit the OP to correct the authors name...

That said, I am very talented ;)

[ET Awful]

2. My all time favorite version of that was recorded by Richie Havens on his

'Cuts To The Chase' album.

That's probably my favorite anti-war song of all time.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Jackson Browne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPFdbKLUmQk