Blue summer sky, humid summer heat An old mason's laughing laying blocks of concrete It's that out in the open charm of a Baltimore street Then a bullet flies I seen the boy get shot, heard him was crying out Trying to find somebody who could make the pain stop His sister was crying on the steps, fearing what would happen next More of the same She's searching for a new world in the shadow of the old Trying to shake off the past but it's just such a heavy load Looking for direction but there's so many dead-end roads It's so far, so far So far away from here You got the scapegoat, got the blame, got the anger, got the shame Got a hundred different forces working against you in your name So few to trust, they're greeting you with guns or handcuffs More of the same She's searching for a new world in the shadow of the old Trying to shake off the past but it's just such a heavy load Looking for direction but there's so many dead-end roads It's so far, so far So far away from here Still she finds time to smile, selling snowballs on the porch Singing songs as she walks to the grocery store Too young to hold such pain but she's old enough to try Oh here's the future brother, it's in your sister's open mind She's searching for a new world in the shadow of the old Trying to shake off the past but it's just such a heavy load Looking for direction but there's so many dead-end roads It's so far, so far So far away from here

We're standing on the shoulders of people Who sat, and stood, and fought And sacrificed their lives at times So that we'd be better off I'm talking bout ordinary people Whose courage held them through We need many Harriet Tubmans And we need many Sojourner Truths Ordinary Heroes In the fields of California And the mines in Trinidad Grew a spirit of justice That spread across the nation And lit a fire that burned so bright That it still gives people hope We need many Cesar Chavez's And we need many Mother Jones' Ordinary Heroes Great changes don't come about From some mystical twist of luck They're the fruits of people sweating and stressing And never giving up It takes a lot of hard work and commitment To lift every voice and sing We need many Ella Bakers And we need many Martin Luther Kings Ordinary Heroes We're standing on the shoulders of people Who put a lot of hard work in And passed along their trials and errors To future generations And the stories that we pass along Will be the force that draws us in We need many Woody Guthries And we need many Howard Zinns Ordinary Heroes

Tea party on the capitol lawn, asking you which side you're on Drawing battle lines in this country We're a rich nation full of boarded homes, crowded prisons, abandoned schools Poor folks with hard goals, rich folks with poor souls, Undereducated and overgrown, uninsured and over-loaned Clinging hard to what we own, trying to win the rat race So you hate taxes on the working poor? Unless they're earmarked for the war? Or an electric fence on the border? But not for nurses and doctors? Priorities flipped, that's the way it looks to me, and I work hard for my money But I don't believe in an economy that sets people up to fall Tea party on the capitol lawn and Sarah Palin's singing along Laughing all the way to the Pentagon Tea party on the capitol lawn, asking you which side you're on Drawing battle lines in this country There's something in our world-view, something bout the lens we look through That keeps us from building something new that works out better for more of us It's in the crack where the levees broke, it's in the cash Goldman Sachs stole It's in the fields of Tomatoes where the legacy of slavery roams It's a hatred born of jealous fear, a hatred born and bred right here Xenophobic and insecure with a deadly outcome It's a racism that grows and thrives as religion's used to justify An endless list of human rights denied in the name of "Liberty" Tea party on the capitol lawn and Christian terrorists are singing along Getting ready for the race war Tea party on the capitol lawn, asking you which side you're on Drawing battle lines in this country You're saying "Immigrants should go back home", I say know the ground that you're standing on Cuz Arizona was Mexico, and your grandparents were European And our national heroes like Thomas Paine were immigrants when they came And called themselves Americans, that's how it's always been "They're taking our jobs", that's what you're told, and so that's the story-line you hold But the people putting folks out in the cold didn't come here on foot No, Maria and Juan didn't steal your jobs, they were outsourced by Bill and Ron As South America's wealth was robbed by U.S. corporate policies And when they dumping the Tea in the Boston, it was an attack against a corporation So I don't see the connection between their story and yours And Crispus Attucks and the Boston dead weren't fighting for a white nation They were fighting against an occupation like the Iraq and Afghan wars Tea party on the capitol lawn, asking you which side you're on Battle lines are being drawn in this country

I know a man who hates unions Even though he's in the union And the wage he gets from being union Gave him what he's got He lives his life quite nicely With a big house and a family And seldom has to worry About paying the bills Yes the power he got from his union card And his free time born from union blood Gave him a happy life I know a woman who hates the poor Cuz she scared herself of being poor And she hates that it's so close to her From where she's at right now She hangs through life on a thin thread And the pundits offer her hatred To make her feel like she's elevated Above somebody else But she knows and I know She's right their in shadows With all the somebody elses America, you can look like this Raised hard by the myths of whiteness Hanging with a tightness To a xenophobic past The deck from which your hands are dealt Is stacked centuries deep in cotton wealth And the stories that your people tell Are those of hope and pain We got angry men who were raised deprived Emotionally traumatized Who's way of dealing with the world outside Is rage or to block it out And strong women who work most their lives Unappreciated by the men in their lives Who know what it means to feel alive Cuz they know what it means to hurt Ignorance bred from despair That's what we got here America, you can look like this Raised hard by the myths of whiteness Hanging with a tightness To a xenophobic past The deck from which your hands are dealt Is stacked centuries deep in cotton wealth And the stories that your people tell Are those of hope and pain I was raised by parents who worked hard And they taught me how to work hard But a lot of people work hard And don't get what they deserve And so it was early on That I learned which side I'm on The one that fights for human beings In a world of dollar signs You can call me radical But I'd call myself practical You know? America, you can look like this Raised hard by the myths of whiteness Hanging with a tightness To a xenophobic past But that ain't gonna last

Victorian houses dot these small town streets Where the water runs down now to feed the city's needs The high-pressure pumps of the industrial machines That flooded these valleys in the nineteen teens I was born and raised on this old plantation Amidst suburban sprawl real estate and the doc com generation The Master's house is a museum for the modern gentry That overlooks the water and overlooks the truth And travelers come here to this destination To marvel at the expertise of the carpenter and mason Architecture and landscape stained With the fingerprints of the unpaid, chained, abused people, enslaved, our roots But right there on the side streets of these historic towns Are the depots of the engineers that helped bring slavery down Abolitionists. Anti-racist families. Organizers. Freedom fighters And you can walk the secret paths where the railroad ran Where my great great grandfather drew a line in the sand And said bring your dogs, we'll beat the fear, you can follow my feet but they'll beat you there Cuz that Northern Star of freedom is clear in the sky today If the price of freedom is the price of life, then ante up cuz you don't live twice And if you believe in freedom then that's price you pay And he gambled, with Harriet and Frederick, William Lloyd Garrison and all the other heroes Oh but these Suburban streets don't like to talk They a throw a lid upon the past like blanket made of rock But if you ask the right questions and pick the right locks You can find clues the Master hid back then And today I'm holding up the roof of a history worth living it Resistance to oppression, towards the shining light of freedom Northbound, real heroes, real people, real stories Passing it on.

There's a rose on your gravestone There's a crucifix on your gravestone There's a cigarette on your gravestone Better smoke it There's a candle on your gravestone There's a railroad spike on your gravestone There's a guiness on your gravestone Better drink it And for all the days I've wondered about my own tomorrow And for all the nights I've went to sleep filled with fear and sorrow There's other days I look up at the sky and fall in love There's other nights I stay up late cuz I just can't enough Sometimes it falls apart sometimes it fits like a glove There's grass blades on your gravestone There's tears on your grave stone There's handprints on your gravestone Better say hi There's good words on your gravestone There's smiles reflecting on your gravestone Old friends sitting on your gravestone And we never say bye

Capo 4 C G C Last few years have been a hard few years G C Now I'm half a century high C F But as Winter turns to Spring I'm gonna grow from the hard things C F G I'm gonna change my life C G F Gotta open my heart back up I'm gonna be a better partner I'm gonna be a better friend Cuz these people standing by my side Are the people who will be there til the end Gotta open my heart back up Last few years have been a hard few years Now I'm half a century wise And as Winter turns to Spring I'm gonna be transforming I'm gonna change my life I'm gonna be a better uncle I'm gonna be a better son I don't wanna grow to be a father And say follow what I say not what I've done Last few years have been a hard few years Now I'm half a century wise And as Winter turns to Spring I'm gonna let myself start blooming again I'm gonna change my life

You don't fight, we won't fight We can sleep in peace this Christmas night The war is over by the troops decree It's a dead-end fight and we all agree But what are we gonna do come the morning light? You don't fight, we won't fight We can meet half way on the bloody ice Comradely bond with no arms drawn I'm wondering who's side we're on I got a flask of something strong and I'm sharing it with friends tonight You don't fight, we won't fight We can bury our dead, honor them right I'll pray for you, and you'll pay for me And we'll re-define bravery I'm strong and proud but I don't wanna die tonight You don't fight, we won't fight I've got half your men right in my sights But I've seen your lives and I've seen your dead So I'm firing well above your heads The world's gone mad but I ain't gonna take a life You don't fight, we won't fight Will this courage last past Christmas night? And what will they say in hundred years? When they look back on what happened here? What are we gonna do come the morning light?

Soldier's got the watches Farmer's got the time Soldier's got the capital Farmer's got the countryside What you got? You're pretty far from home here What you got? You're all alone here Soldier's got the helicopter Farmer's got the RPG Soldier's got the propaganda Farmer's got the popularity And the ghosts of Brits, and the ghosts of Russians They haunt your dreams don't they? This has happened before It went the same way

Capo 4 / -6 D Strong, brave, and broken G Anger, shame, and fear have soaked in No more peace and quiet She's stuck in a scene she brought back on the backs of her eyelids A split second decision with a trigger Now she holds that moment inside her rigid figure If you pry at her too much she might burst wide open She's brave, strong, and broken She's a symbol of our generation Savior of the haunted American imagination Sent away to uphold the fiction Of a sinister world around us demanding intervention But she's not working for a way to change the past? She knows you gotta swallow that and work to change your path Responsibility preceding reconciliation She's a symbol of our generation Slowly over time, that's how it goes And there's scars that follow once the wounds are closed Living with the weight of so many lives And 4 million refugees fighting to survive "Salaam" now tattooed down her arm Determined and committed, calm like a bomb She's re-defined her role in the war that took her youth And transformed her uniform into a symbol of the truth

capo 8 / C G F G There's blood stained streets where I've marched and yelled Broke through the lines when we felt compelled Got a whole crowd of people behind me With their arms linked and they're scared but they're willing There's something real in that place and time That wraps itself around your mind And you forget, you forget, you forget That changing the world takes time and patience Oh, I'm growing from it My friends and I we saw a lot of shit Didn't process it for years now we're facing it Took the crazy dreams of my generation Tried to make em' something real But in the mystic worlds we built around us To escape from the violence that surrounds us We often left the hard work needed For a vague, conceptual struggle Oh, I'm growing from it And these are the days we pay new attention As we can look at this world with a brand new lens in Facing the vast complexities Of this global human fabric From those like me who took the reigns of change And forced our way onto center stage To those friends who took the oath Against all enemies foreign and domestic There's something real in this place and time That wraps itself around your mind And you can see, you can see, you can see The imperfections that bind us all together Oh, we're growing from it

We're world changers in a changing world Always racing towards the distant sounds Of someone singing something sweet A short and simple song of peace We're world changers in a changing world Racing and pacing all around Anxiously pushing on For something for the future look back on We're world changers in a changing world Facing out and facing forward Proud to do the things we do Proud to stand behind these values We're world changers in a changing world Always racing towards the distant sounds Of someone singing something sweet A short and simple song of peace We're world changers in a changing world Always wishing that we had it now Learning the rhythm of the pace of change What you have to do for the smallest things We're world changers in a changing world Trying to balance out our love With an outrage that motivates And the madness that it generates We're world changers in a changing world Always racing towards the distant sounds Of someone singing something sweet A short and simple song of peace

capo 4 C It spread to Egypt F C F They were walking like Tunisians there C It spread to Egypt F C F They were walking like Tunisians there G C That spirit blew across Libya G F C And ended up in Tahrir Square Now it spread to Yemen They'e walking like Egyptians there Now it spread to Bahrain They'e walking like Egyptians there That spirit blew across the Red Sea And ended up in Pearl Square G C Cuz it's an open door G F C But you only get what you go for It spread to Wisconsin They're walking like Egyptians there It spread to Wisconsin They're walking like Egyptians there That spirit blew across the Atlantic And it ended up in Capitol Square Now it spread to Syria They're walking like Egyptians there Now it spread to Spain They're walking like Egyptians there That spirit's blowing across the whole world It could end up anywhere Cuz it's an open door But you only get what you go for