I can play this guitar, I can sing a few notes,
I’m old enough now in this country to vote
So I wrote me a song ‘bout the white winged dove
And a toy gun for Christmas in place of love.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
I hear the children yell with their hands on a gun
I’m better than you are ‘cause I got one…
My playmates respect me, my Mommy does too
Cause she bought it for me to shoot whenever I choose.
Sometimes I wish this gun it was real
But I can pretend that it’s made out of steel.
Bullets and powder and a trigger to pull.
Then I’d be grown-up like the rest of the world.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
When I grow up it will be okay
To join the army and to vote someday
Like my Mommy, my country will give me a gun
To use like I did my old toy one.
Nobody is born with the urge to kill
You learn it as you live and you live as you will
So buy your kids a toy gun so they will have the right
To kill mankind like a dove’s last flight.
The blood of this world is mixed with tears
Guns have been around for hundreds of years.
If that’s the way you want it then that’s the way it is
‘Cause the world is what you make it and we made it blood red.
Daddy, oh Daddy, buy me some love,
I dreamed last night I killed a white winged dove.
Everybody was dead except for three things:
Me, my gun and the dog-gone dream.
In my dream the dove she tried to fly,
My toy gun killed her and I watched her die.
Then the wind sang soft like a tear from above
Your Daddy cannot buy back the white winged dove.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
I’m old enough now in this country to vote
So I wrote me a song ‘bout the white winged dove
And a toy gun for Christmas in place of love.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
I hear the children yell with their hands on a gun
I’m better than you are ‘cause I got one…
My playmates respect me, my Mommy does too
Cause she bought it for me to shoot whenever I choose.
Sometimes I wish this gun it was real
But I can pretend that it’s made out of steel.
Bullets and powder and a trigger to pull.
Then I’d be grown-up like the rest of the world.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
When I grow up it will be okay
To join the army and to vote someday
Like my Mommy, my country will give me a gun
To use like I did my old toy one.
Nobody is born with the urge to kill
You learn it as you live and you live as you will
So buy your kids a toy gun so they will have the right
To kill mankind like a dove’s last flight.
The blood of this world is mixed with tears
Guns have been around for hundreds of years.
If that’s the way you want it then that’s the way it is
‘Cause the world is what you make it and we made it blood red.
Daddy, oh Daddy, buy me some love,
I dreamed last night I killed a white winged dove.
Everybody was dead except for three things:
Me, my gun and the dog-gone dream.
In my dream the dove she tried to fly,
My toy gun killed her and I watched her die.
Then the wind sang soft like a tear from above
Your Daddy cannot buy back the white winged dove.
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
Just a toy, just a toy, just a toy,
A real one, a steel one, just a toy.
Contributed by Alessandro - 2009/7/23 - 15:29
... Thank you Alessandro for contributing mark spoelstra's versionof white winged dove. It has been about 45 yrs. Since i had last heard it tho it resurfaces in my mind occassionally ... Unannounced. Thank you kind sir, otis
otis henry - 2018/4/28 - 04:00
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Parole e musica di Mark Spoelstra
Nell'album “Five & Twenty Questions”
Testo e accordi pubblicati sul #62 del Broadside Magazine, 15 settembre 1965
Spoelstra era di fede quacchera e, grazie a questo, fece obiezione di coscienza al servizio militare senza però subire processo e prigione, come invece capitò a molti altri… Per due anni, tra il 1963 e il 1965 fece il servizio civile a Fresno, in California.
Alcune delle sue canzoni si riferiscono proprio a questa sua scelta di rifiuto del servizio militare, delle armi e della guerra.