I’ve lived most of my life on this unforgiving land
Where the earth is cracked and torn
My Mama said the sun had a fight with the moon
On the night that I was born
My name is Jorges dos Santos but God don’t ask me why
I’m as African as Africa is old
Mama said we lost our name when we lost our liberty
When the strangers came and took our gold
But I won’t blame the past for the things that I have done
It’s far too late to try and understand
I’ve fought against my own in a war paid for in blood
And the diamonds torn from our land
I remember as a little boy the way my Mama worked
In the fields but times they were severe
She said it was the rains that failed and then the soldiers came
Our land was filled with fear
As the dark years of the war grew long my own kids came to see
The daily trials that just went on for years
Then one day with an anguished heart I started walking south
And I joined the mutineers
They paid us in blood money from the mighty USA
And we prayed to God from the chapter and the verse
Then they marched us into battle against our brothers and our sons
That was the day I knew that I’d been cursed
I remember as we stormed the trench the rain came down like nails
And that boy just threw his rifle on the ground
And as he raised his hands into the air I shot him down
Some nights I still wake up and I hear that sound
He couldn’t have been much older than the son I’d left behind
As I turned the body over there I saw
My brother’s only son in that ragged uniform
As he lay there a trophy from the war
I never did return to the village of my birth
I roamed around from war to bloody war
And all that I can ask for from this heaven or this earth
Is to clean my mind of all the things I saw
But it’s too late for forgiveness It’s too late for amnesty
I’m too far down the road to living hell
All I’m left with is the bitter taste of heart that’s turned to ice
And the soul that I came to sell
Now I’m sitting in this stinking cell in some forsaken place
I guess the time had come for me to pay
But there’s nothing in the world that I can do to make it right
There’s nothing that’s left for me to say
And the power politicians they simply slipped away
Protected by the riches that they stole
From the sweat and from the hunger of a land they left in ruins
And a people that they never could control
And Mama sent a letter I could almost hear her cry
Thank God she never knew the things I’d done
I just read it then I burnt it cause I knew I’d not reply
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
Where the earth is cracked and torn
My Mama said the sun had a fight with the moon
On the night that I was born
My name is Jorges dos Santos but God don’t ask me why
I’m as African as Africa is old
Mama said we lost our name when we lost our liberty
When the strangers came and took our gold
But I won’t blame the past for the things that I have done
It’s far too late to try and understand
I’ve fought against my own in a war paid for in blood
And the diamonds torn from our land
I remember as a little boy the way my Mama worked
In the fields but times they were severe
She said it was the rains that failed and then the soldiers came
Our land was filled with fear
As the dark years of the war grew long my own kids came to see
The daily trials that just went on for years
Then one day with an anguished heart I started walking south
And I joined the mutineers
They paid us in blood money from the mighty USA
And we prayed to God from the chapter and the verse
Then they marched us into battle against our brothers and our sons
That was the day I knew that I’d been cursed
I remember as we stormed the trench the rain came down like nails
And that boy just threw his rifle on the ground
And as he raised his hands into the air I shot him down
Some nights I still wake up and I hear that sound
He couldn’t have been much older than the son I’d left behind
As I turned the body over there I saw
My brother’s only son in that ragged uniform
As he lay there a trophy from the war
I never did return to the village of my birth
I roamed around from war to bloody war
And all that I can ask for from this heaven or this earth
Is to clean my mind of all the things I saw
But it’s too late for forgiveness It’s too late for amnesty
I’m too far down the road to living hell
All I’m left with is the bitter taste of heart that’s turned to ice
And the soul that I came to sell
Now I’m sitting in this stinking cell in some forsaken place
I guess the time had come for me to pay
But there’s nothing in the world that I can do to make it right
There’s nothing that’s left for me to say
And the power politicians they simply slipped away
Protected by the riches that they stole
From the sweat and from the hunger of a land they left in ruins
And a people that they never could control
And Mama sent a letter I could almost hear her cry
Thank God she never knew the things I’d done
I just read it then I burnt it cause I knew I’d not reply
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
Jorges dos Santos as she knew him is dead and gone
inviata da dq82 + Roger Lucey - 5/3/2016 - 11:23
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Now Is The Time
Testo e spiegazione inviati direttamente da Roger Lucey (si veda You Only Need Say Nothing)
After the collapse of my music career, I spent many years working as a TV news producer/ cameraman. I covered the war in Angola many times and the idea for the song Jorge do Santos came from these trips to the Angolan battlefront. During one of these trips I met a soldier who had killed his nephew in a firefight. So the song is a fictional account based on true incidents.