I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
The man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, "Now, what chance has that
Kid got?"
And I say from the back, "I don't know."
He says, "There's barbed wire at all of these exits...
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid
To go."
It's a hard life
It's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in Belfast for
These kids to go
A cafeteria line in Chicago
The fat man in front of me
Is calling black people trash to his children
He's the only trash here I see
And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
In the night when his children should sleep
But, they slip to their window and they see him
And they think that white hood's all they need
It's a hard life
It's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in Chicago for
These kids to go
I was a child in the sixties
Dreams could be held through TV
With Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin Luther
Oh, I believed, I believed... I BELIEVED
Now, I am the backseat driver from America
I am not at the wheel of control
I am guilty, I am war,... I am the root of all evil
Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road
It's a hard life
It's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in this world for
These kids to go
He might pass by in the hour of need
There's a lot of souls
Ain't drinking from no well locked in a factory
Hey - look there goes
Hey - look there goes
If you're after getting the honey - hey
Then you don't go killing all the bees
Lord, there goes Martin Luther King
Notice how the door closes
When the chimes of freedom ring
I hear what you're saying, I hear what he's saying
*Is what was true now no longer so
Hey - I hear what you're saying
Hey - I hear what he's saying
If you're after getting the honey - hey
Then you don't go killing all the bees
What the people are saying
And we know every road - go, go
What the people are saying
There ain't no berries on the trees
Let the summertime sun
Fall on the apple - fall on the apple
Lord, there goes a Buick forty-nine
Black sheep of the angels riding, riding down the line
We think there is a soul, we don't know
That soul is hard to find
Hey - down along the road
Hey - down along the road
If you're after getting the honey
Then you don't go killing all the bees
Hey - it's what the people are saying
It's what the people are saying
Hey - there ain't no berries on the trees
Hey - that's what the people are saying, no berries on the trees
You're checking out the honey, baby
You had to go killin' all the bees
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