As it was in Hitler's Army and Stalin's awful crew,
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Pearl Harbor too;
Across the sweep of history - There's a truth they never tell:
There's more horror in obedience than there'd be if we'd rebel
Chorus:
So, when they speak to you of glory, and colors bright and true;
And using words like 'good and evil' say it all comes down to you;
When they offer you a weapon and send you out into the fray,
Don't Obey. Don't Obey.
Don't Obey.
From Selma to Sharpeville; Chicago to Bei Jing;
From Kent State to Tiananmen Square; We cry out; we bleed.
From Tolstoy to Gandhi; and Gandhi to King.
From Malcolm, and Mandela, and Biko to me.
Chorus
Aren't those your loved ones - huddled against the wall?
Can't you hear the windows shatter? Feel the building start to fall?
Something's gone wrong with us all -
There's shooting in the alley, footsteps in the hall.
If every sin were tallied, if every mother knew
Just exactly what they're asking; exactly what you do;
How long do you think they'd stand there, with their hands by their sides?
Even all wrapped up in bunting - A lie is still a lie.
Chorus
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Pearl Harbor too;
Across the sweep of history - There's a truth they never tell:
There's more horror in obedience than there'd be if we'd rebel
Chorus:
So, when they speak to you of glory, and colors bright and true;
And using words like 'good and evil' say it all comes down to you;
When they offer you a weapon and send you out into the fray,
Don't Obey. Don't Obey.
Don't Obey.
From Selma to Sharpeville; Chicago to Bei Jing;
From Kent State to Tiananmen Square; We cry out; we bleed.
From Tolstoy to Gandhi; and Gandhi to King.
From Malcolm, and Mandela, and Biko to me.
Chorus
Aren't those your loved ones - huddled against the wall?
Can't you hear the windows shatter? Feel the building start to fall?
Something's gone wrong with us all -
There's shooting in the alley, footsteps in the hall.
If every sin were tallied, if every mother knew
Just exactly what they're asking; exactly what you do;
How long do you think they'd stand there, with their hands by their sides?
Even all wrapped up in bunting - A lie is still a lie.
Chorus
Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2005/7/22 - 22:09
×
![]()
Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Testo e musica di Scott Ainslie
Lyrics and music by Scott Ainslie
Testo ripreso da:
Lyrics available at:
http://polsong.gcal.ac.uk/songs/ainsli...
"The song Don't Obey began developing after a reading of Howard Zinn's marvellous Declarations of Independence: Cross Examining American Ideology in the spring of 2003. It is a song in the Gandhian tradition of non-violent engagement and finds some of its inspiration more recently from the Israeli military men and women - now numbering over 1,000 - who have refused to serve or bomb in the occupied territories." -Scott Ainslie.
Don't Obey
(Alessandro)