1. |
Plains Song
03:34
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That old black snake has been crawling across the plains
And these two winding rivers stand in its way
Already frack-laced and holding fields washed away
With soil, and with hog shit, ammonia and blame
And what will they say when they speak our names
In these years still unfolding, our children now babes?
When the well pads still slave, in the Bakken, from the grave
While the oil keeps on flowing to the jangling of chains
Come mother, come father, and stand with me now
As we bury our grievances in this dark ground
Come brother, come sister, let's dig in our heels
And from Alberta down to Texas we'll bankrupt their oil fields
Come friends and come comrades, we've got cultures to kill
And in the ruins that they've left us, we'll plant gardens still.
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2. |
Wade in the Water
03:01
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Wade in the water, wade in the water
Wade in the water, protectors gonna defend the waters
See those pipelines comin' 'round,
protectors gonna defend the waters
We're turning their plans upside down
protectors gonna defend the waters
The water's sacred like me and you
protectors gonna defend the waters
and those who pollute the waters are damn fools,
protectors gonna defend the waters
Wade in the water, wade in the water
Wade in the water, protectors gonna defend the waters
See those pipelines comin' 'round,
protectors gonna defend the waters
We're turning their plans upside down
protectors gonna defend the waters
The water's sacred like me and you
protectors gonna defend the waters
and those who pollute the waters are damn fools,
protectors gonna defend the waters
Wade in the water, wade in the water
Wade in the water, protectors gonna defend the waters
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3. |
Break the Line
02:38
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Chorus:
Break the line, break the line, ‘cause we’re running out of time
make them fight for every mile, make them fight for every dime
they’re building pipes over the water, every summer’s getting hotter
there’s no compromise, we gotta break the line
From the arctic to the Amazon’s a global climate war
First Nations on the front line won’t take it anymore
Standing Rock was the beginning- if they want to build Line 3
Before they put it in the ground they’ll have to get through you and me
Chorus
My daddy was a Bolt Weevil, he fought the big CU
And made the towers crumble when the power line came through
He raised me right and proper, so I learned my lesson well
If you want to stop a line you’ve got to blow it straight to hell
chorus
From Duluth to the Red River, the crackdown’s being laid
Northern Lights will be the iron fist for Enbridge’s crusade
But North woods is our battle ground, the path ahead is clear
Let our bodies on the line become the spanner in the gears
chorus
repeated: Break the line, break the line, break the line
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4. |
The Singing Left
05:02
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I didn't want to move to California where it's always dry
On the other side of a mountain range with the fires raging high
Where the rivers are choked with concrete to shunt the rain out to the sea
If I'm gonna die that's not the place I'd choose for me
And in their millions, teeming masses, struggling to catch their breath
Would push you down beneath the water if it meant a chance to rest
Where the fault lines won't stop groaning in the bedrock that was broke
In the path of a tsunami is a relentless, tortured hope
Like the "ghost wolves" with no families, or the cougars moving east
Or the migratory songbirds who tomorrow cease to be
Or the bison in the paddock with a butcher at its throat
We did it to the world around us as we did it to our own
And in their millions, teeming masses who don't have words but still know fear
Know longing and the pain of losing when their kinships disappear
And if the machines won't stop spinning, then these bodies are the brakes
It's extinction or restoration, and that's the choice we get to make
I don't know why I don't leave the city and these people who I fear
I don't know why this river called me and the wind carried me here
There must be something that I'm doing, though its shape I don't quite see
For now the lilacs on the night breeze comfort me
And their millions, teeming masses, who don't know the power they hold
When the screens are always telling them "You're better off alone.
Every commons gets evicted, every culture gentrifies
And every year another loved one tires and chooses suicide."
But this angry, bitter hope inside which never quite congeals
Whispers "the ways we hurt each other show the ways we've got to heal,"
And I'll hear my spirit ringing where the chisel left this cleft
Between the hammer and the anvil, there is only singing left
And in our millions, teaming masses, building toward we don't know what
But it might be a better future than the present that we've got
Where we listen to each other and let the rhythms guide our breath
And then we'll face this fear together, a broken but a singing Left
And then we'll face this fear together, hand in hand, the Singing Left
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5. |
||||
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry
Go to sleep you little baby
When you wake, you shall have
all the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapple and grays
All the pretty little horses
Way down yonder, down in the meadow
Lies my poor little child
bees and butterflies flies are pickin' out its eyes
The poor little child crying mama
Blacks and bays, dapple and grays
All the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapple and grays
All the pretty little horses
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry
Go to sleep you little baby
When you wake, you shall have
all the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapple and grays
All the pretty little horses
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6. |
Harriet Tubman
02:20
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Running through the forest, running through the hills
Hear those dogs a-barking at Harriet Tubman’s heels
With a Bible in one hand, a pistol in the next
She led the fight for freedom with that fire in her chest
Hey Sister Harriet, Tell me where you gone?
I’ve gone up to the north country, I left before the dawn
The fight for our freedom was the price to go my bail
A thousand dollars on my head and hound dogs on my trail
Harriet saying brother come along with me
We’ll chase behind the drinking gourd and find the Jubilee
Harriet saying sister come on, don’t be slow
Ain’t gonna wait for Pharoah just to let our people go
Hear the voices telling me by morning we’ll be free
General Tubman’s coming up the banks of Combahee
People gotta rise up when we hear the trumpets blow
And the master’s house is falling like the walls of Jericho
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7. |
||||
Goin' across the mountain, oh fare thee well
Goin' 'cross the mountain, you can hear my banjo tell
Got my rations on my back, my powder it is dry
Goin' across the mountains, Chrissy don't you cry
Well I'm goin' across the mountain, oh fare thee well
Goin' 'cross the mountains, you can hear my banjo tell
Leave before it's good daylight, if nothin' happens to me
By this time tomorrow I'll be in in Tennessee
Guess you'll miss me when I'm gone but I'm goin' through
When the war is over, I'll come back to you
Well I'm goin' across the mountain, oh fare thee well
Goin' 'cross the mountains, you can hear my banjo tell
Goin' across the mountain even if I have to crawl
Gonna give Jeff Davis a piece of my rifle ball
No slave or no freedman ever done me any harm,
ain't gonna lay my life down for no rich man's cotton farm
Well I'm goin' across the mountain, oh fare thee well
Goin' 'cross the mountains, you can hear my banjo tell
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8. |
Bella Ciao
04:47
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Una mattina mi sono alzato
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
Una mattina mi sono alzato
E ho trovato l'invasor
O partigiano, portami via
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
O partigiano, portami via
Ché mi sento di morir
E se io muoio da partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
E se io muoio da partigiano
Tu mi devi seppellir
E seppellire lassù in montagna
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
E seppellire lassù in montagna
Sotto l'ombra di un bel fior
Tutte le genti che passeranno
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Tutte le genti che passeranno
Mi diranno: "Che bel fior"
Questo è il fiore del partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Questo è il fiore del partigiano
Morto per la libertà
The world is waking outside my window
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
The world is waking outside my window
for the enemy have come
Oh partisan, please take me with you
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Oh partisan, please take me with you
for I know my death is near
and if I die in the fight for freedom
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
and if I die in the fight for freedom
you will have to bury me
Oh bury me up upon the mountain
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Oh bury me up upon the mountain
under the shade of a blooming rose
and all those passing along my graveside
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
and all those passing along my graveside
stop and shed a tear for me
This is the grave of a fallen comrade
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
This is the grave of a fallen comrade
who died for liberty
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9. |
Lac Megantic
04:36
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That oil train is three miles long, coming down the track
Its wheels are pitted iron and its barrels loomng and black
Those barrel cars are long as night and blacker than the crow
Riding from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico
Looks we’ll be here for a while, but then that’s nothing new
The North Star line is always stalled when the oil train comes through
It’s been that way these past few years ever since the boom began
Riding from the Bakken Shale or the Athabasca Sands
I heard there was an accident on a line out in Quebec
In the town of Lac Megantic was an oil hauler wreck
Said she came in without warning in the small hours of the night
There was screaming on the rails and then the air was full of light
Old cars on old tracks, just one conductor on the shift
The MMA had cut its costs, it was in the name of thrift
Switched off the job in Nantes, with an engine fire to kill
But those brakes gave out past midnight, she came rolling down the hill
And down in Lac Megantic at the new Music Cafe
The people crowded in to hear Bolduc and Ricard play
They were singing to the old Chansons, la vie et l’amore
Without thinking on the railroad tracks that ran outside the door
And she was moving fast and faster down the main line in the night
Her bells were deadly quiet and her wheels were smoking white
And the ground shook like an avalanche when she hit the bend downtown
The sky was raining fire when that oil train came down
The sun was rising red over the black and bloody smoke
The ground was still burning where the oil train had broke
For 47 dead and gone they’d ring the chapel bell
When she rode like the Pale Horseman and what followed her was hell
That oil train is three miles long, coming down the track
Its wheels are pitted iron and its barrels long and black
Those barrel cars are long as night and blacker than the crow
Riding from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico
Right through here is where they go; right through here is where they go.
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10. |
Ballad of Pinelli
04:50
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That night in Milan, was the setting
How hot, that the sergeant was sweating
Brigadier, crack open the window
A push, and Pinelli goes down
Oh sergeant, Pinelli repeated-
I am innocent- but how I’m treated!
Anarchy does not call us to bombing
To be free, we must just disobey
No more lying, Pinelli, confess it
Without even your word we can guess it
The bomb was laid out by Valpreda
Your friend, and the blood’s on your hands
Said Pinelli, the bomber’s some other-
Not my comrade or one of my brothers
The hands stained with blood are your own, sir,
and the ones that are holding your leash
The sergeant leaned in, and was smoking
Blowing out and Pinelli was choking
Brigadiere, crack open the window
Pinelli, it’s four stories down
Our flags were black in our mourning
Three thousand comrades gave this warning,
We swore by the blood of Pinelli
We will neither forget or forgive
You Guida, and you, Calebresi
Was it you who sent out the order,
To cover up the fascist murder?
Was Pinelli the price in your game?
That night in Milan, was the setting
How hot, that the sergeant was sweating
Brigadier, crack open the window
A push, and Pinelli goes down
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11. |
Sand Hills
05:29
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I am nothing but a man, made my life upon the land
west Wisconsin is my home
In a town of farms and mills, high up in the Driftless Hills
Where as I boy I’d roam
Those sand bluffs would remain, until the company came
To strip the hillside bare
Digging up the sand to frac someone else’s land
In some other town somewhere
Chorus:
and I know it's for the best, I should count myself blessed
that's what the companies say
but I'll turn my eyes, hang my head and cry
'cause they’re haulin’ the sand hills away
Well, I know that times are tough, this economy is rough
and we’ve all seen better days
and when they’re mining out the hills, there’ll be jobs to be filled
at twenty dollar an hour’s pay
but the mine don’t seem to care if our kids can breathe the air
or the water’s there for all
and when the boom is through, those jobs will be gone, too
and leave the country raw
chorus
Is this the best way, as some people say
to power our country
?
because it seems a damned high cost,
when there’s so much to be lost
and the wind and the sunshine’s free
the more I think, the more I find
that it’s burning in my mind
that it’s a damned and shameful sin
to put creation up for bids, and leave nothing for our kids
but ghosts of sand hills in the wind
chorus
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12. |
Richard Carlile
03:42
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Hello again, your Honor- I think you know me well
My name is Richard Carlile, and the truth to you I’ll tell
My charge is sedition and libel in the press-
I’ve printed no lies, sir, but sedition I’ll confess
for a king is still a man, no less or greater than
Those who delve the loam and dig the deathly mines
And the station of your birth gives you no claim over the ear
No right over our labor and no right over our minds
Chorus:
You'll never silence me, with your troops or with your jail
you'll never silence me- and let the truth stand for my bail
Take my paper, take my pen, and I will come to raise again
And I'll sing your name, Oh Liberty, until every man and woman's speaking free
I know the charge against me, and I'll tell you what it's for-
for putting books and putting power into the hands of the working poor,
and for writing these words I know are true:
There's the servants and there's the masters and there's a war between the two
I've seen men locked into your cells, your priests damn us into hell
your yeomen cut the people down-
with the gun and saber too on the fields of Peterloo,
and the Corn Law and wage slavery in the slums of London Town
Chorus
Is there any Earthly power to put King George on the run,
More than the Yankee rebels, more than Boney’s guns?
But the common folk of Britain, could do with their arms crossed
What all the arms of Europe had ventured and had lost
We are co-conspirators, engaging in the war
Declared on us the day they forged a crown
And put reason into chains, put people in the same
But people, by refusing, could pull any tyrant down
Chorus
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13. |
||||
In eighteen hundred one
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred one
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred one
Peggin' shoes was all I done
I'm gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two
Peggin' shoes was all I'd do
I'm gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three
Peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three
Peggin' shoes was all you'd see
I'm gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
They've invented a new machine
Peg and awl
They've invented a new machine
Peg and awl
They've invented a new machine
I peg one shoe, it pegs fifteen
I'm gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four
peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four
peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four
pegging shoes I'll do no more
I'm gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
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14. |
I Guess I Won't Enlist
02:12
|
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I love my flag, I do i do
that floats upon the breeze
I also love my arms and legs
and neck and nose and knees
One little shell might spoil them
Or give them such a twist
They would be of no use to me
I guess I won't enlist
I love my country yes i do
I hope her folks do well
Without our arms and legs and things
I think we'd look like hell
Young men with faces half shot off
are unfit to be kissed
I've read in books it spoils looks
I guess I won't enlist
But if someday the call went out
to build this land some homes
where families live more happily
than in some dark catacombs
if the army marches to raise a park
for hikes and games and trysts
and let alone their tanks and drones
Well then I would enlist
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