Beside an unused union hall
And an abandoned factory
By the Allegheny River
In another rust belt city
You can see the well-dressed families
On Memorial Day
Reading the names on the walls
Of all those who went away
Who went off in a ship
And came back in a bag
Packed into a coffin
Wrapped up in a flag
I saw a war on every stone
I read a name on every line
And when I reached the end
A chill ran down my spine
(Chorus)
Four blank slates
For battlefields yet unknown
That soon some will call their own
A wordless message in a frame
Four blank slates
For the dice that aren’t yet tossed
For the lives that aren’t yet lost
For a war without a name
What will be written on that stone
Will it be on Persian soil
Will they say it was for freedom
Or Venezuelan oil
The only thing that’s certain
Is it will be across the sea
And the new names on this rock
Will have died in someone else’s country
(Chorus)
How many other nations
Are already planning their next war
How many people know
It’ll be on someone else’s shore
Will there come a time
When all good people are enraged
To see a slate awaiting
A war that’s not yet waged
(Chorus)
And an abandoned factory
By the Allegheny River
In another rust belt city
You can see the well-dressed families
On Memorial Day
Reading the names on the walls
Of all those who went away
Who went off in a ship
And came back in a bag
Packed into a coffin
Wrapped up in a flag
I saw a war on every stone
I read a name on every line
And when I reached the end
A chill ran down my spine
(Chorus)
Four blank slates
For battlefields yet unknown
That soon some will call their own
A wordless message in a frame
Four blank slates
For the dice that aren’t yet tossed
For the lives that aren’t yet lost
For a war without a name
What will be written on that stone
Will it be on Persian soil
Will they say it was for freedom
Or Venezuelan oil
The only thing that’s certain
Is it will be across the sea
And the new names on this rock
Will have died in someone else’s country
(Chorus)
How many other nations
Are already planning their next war
How many people know
It’ll be on someone else’s shore
Will there come a time
When all good people are enraged
To see a slate awaiting
A war that’s not yet waged
(Chorus)
Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2006/1/7 - 23:46
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Halliburton Boardroom Massacre
Here are fifteen songs I wrote between January and July,
2005. I recorded them at Sugar Hill in Houston with John Griffin on the board on the afternoon of July 28th. I guess there's another bunch of songs here which are continuing the ecological theme that was heavily represented in Beyond the Mall (and to one degree or another in all of my other recordings). Some of the songs are definitely inspired by the musical sensibilies of TV Smith ("Crashing Down," "Boardroom," "Before the Oil Wells Run Dry," "Waiting For The Fall"). I don't know if any of these songs approach TV's brilliance at writing stuff with great universality to it, nor whether the melodies are as catchy as his, but in any case, his music has been a focus for my own songwriting over the past couple months.
Oh, this is a web-only release and can be found in it's entirely in the "MP3 music" section of
this Website. Click on the song titles below to check out the lyrics to each song.
David Rovics.
http://www.davidrovics.com