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Lyrics
1.
OPENING DIALOGUE
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union
Had to have men like Columbus, DeSoto, Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson, Daniel
Boone,
David Crockett, Eli Whitney, Sam Colt, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford,
Orville and Wilburn Wright, my Grandpa, and Paul Revere
**********
2.
PAUL REVERE
(Glenn D. Tubb)
« © '72 Pooh Bear Music, BMI »
In April of 1775 this great nation started comin' alive
Ol' King George didn't look it one bit
So he proceeded to throw him a royal fit
He told his generals better get 'em back in line
Make 'em pay my taxes now America is mine
Stop that Independence cops before it gets around
Or it'll gonna be hard to hold them rebels down
Well the King was talking bout the men like Paul Revere
And the minute men who held their dream of Independence dear
They kept their eyes on the British they watched 'em day and night
They knew very soon they'd get their chance to stand and fight
Yes they knew that the British would get movin' any hour
So they arranged a signal in the Northern Church Tower
Paul was watchin' when the tower showed a light
And he started on his midnight ride
He jumped on his horse hoofs started a hummin'
He screamed out his warning redcoats're comin'
Better get your guns and your fightin' britches on
They're comin' and they're eight hundred strong
Next mornin' at Concord and Lexington town
The spirit of freedom turned the redcoats around
When we praise the men who made this mighty nation we have here
Then let's remember Paul Revere yes let's remember Paul Revere
I guarantee you somethin' and I wanna tell you all
That we never would've been here if it hadn't been for Paul
Yes sir I surely doubt us ever bein' here
If it hadn't been for that man on that horse named Mr Revere
**********
3.
BEGIN WEST MOVEMENT
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
1776 the Thirteen Colonies broke away from British Rule and took a stand
We're on our way they said and they looked across the land
With a defiant challenge they locked across the land
We will conquer you the colonists said
We see you mighty mountains we know of your lush green valleys
We're comin' to claim you to tame you and the movement westward started
**********
4.
ROAD TO KAINTUCK
(June Carter)
« © '65 Copper Creek Music, BMI »
We're goin' west to Kaintuck down the road to Moccasin Gap
Down the wilderness road down the Dug Road the old Reedy Creek Road
The Road down Troublesome the Road through Moccasin Gap
Well it's a hot day in '73 and this is my wife and my kid with me
Daniel Boone lost his boy the other day
Young Jim Boone's dead now twenty miles away
Well if you love your wife and love your baby man
You better turn that wagon back as soon as you can
Every Injun in them hills has gone berserk and you never gonna make it to
Kaintuck
Ah I bet I'm gonna make it to Kaintuck
I'm goin' west to Kaintuck...
**********
5.
TO THE SHINING MOUNTAINS
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Yes went they through the Lehigh Valley to Lake Erie past Virginia
And the land called out its challenge bring your men the match our mountains
See the green Ohio Valley see the Cumberland the Wabash
On the Tennessee they floated on great rafts to the Mississippi
And the Cherokee and Shawnee and the Creek and the Ojibway
And the Choctaw and Quapaw
And all the tribes along the rivers knew ahead they they were coming
That the white man was upon them
They built their homes along the rivers built their churches brought their
preachers
Came upon the wide Missouri stopped before the shining mountains
Many died from the beginning for the freedom of America
Like that day down in New Orleans
**********
6.
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
(Jimmie Driftwood)
« © '57 Warden Music, BMI »
In eighteen-fourteen we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississipp'
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
Fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans
We fired our guns and the British kept a comin'
Wadn't night as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Well we looked down the river and we seen the British come
And there must've been a hubdred of 'em beatin' on the drum
Stepped so high and they began to sing
We stood beside the cotton bails and didn't say a thing
We fired our guns...
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Well we fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
Then we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannonballs and powdered his behind
And when we took the powder off the 'gator lost his mind
We fired our guns...
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
Um pa pa pa um pa pa pa on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Whoopie whoopie get in line there boys
We fired our guns...
Yeah they ran through the briars...
Ha ha you can't catch me can't catch me there redcoat
**********
7.
SOUTHWESTWARD
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Added to their thirteen colonies Tennessee, Vermont, Kentucky
Louisiana and Ohio and Mississippi and Indiana Alabama Maine Missouri
Added Arakansas and Michigan added Florida and Texas
And in Texas five thousand men under Santa Anna
Had crossed the Rio Grande headed for San Antonio
David Crockett left Tennessee with the volunteers headed for San Antonio
At a Spanish mission near San Antonio they met a knife-fighter
And a gambler named Jim Bowie and a Britisher named Travis
One hundred eighty Americans against five thousand to the death
**********
8.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO
(Jane Bowers)
« © '55 Vidor Publications, BMI »
A hundred and eighty were challenged by Travis to die
By the line that he drew with his sword when the battle was nigh
Any man that would fight to the death crossed over
But him that would live better fly
And over the line went a hundred and seventy nine
Hey Santa Anna we're killing your soldiers below
That men wherever they go will remember the Alamo
Bowie lay dying but his powder was ready and dry
Flat on his back Bowie killed him a few in reply
And young David Crockett was singing and laughing
With gallantry fears in his eyes
For God and for freedom a man more than willing to die
Hey Santa Anna...
And then they sent a young scout from the battlements bloody and loud
With the words of farewell from a garrison valiant and proud
Grieve not little darling my dying if Texas is sovereign and free
We'll never surrender and ever with liberty be
Hey Santa Anna...
**********
9.
OPENING THE WEST
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
And the shining Rocky Mountains looked down on the people coming
Strong and sturdy freedom lovin' settlers cowboys pioneers
Now no foreign crown would rule them
Now a nation strong was standing even bigger was it growing
Added Iowa, Wisconsin then broke through the shining mountains
Staked a claim on California
Panned the gold out of its rivers irrigated desert valleys
Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas now were added to the total
Making 34 to number of the States now in the Union
And the years 1860 to 65 the history books're full of it
The sadness the heartbreak and the songs of that period
Tell us of a sadness and of a heartbreak when the nation was torn asunder
**********
10.
LORENA
(Charlie Williams)
« © '59 Central Songs, BMI »
The years creep slowly by Lorena snow is on the grass again
The sun is sinking low Lorena frost is where the flowers have been
The music's sad and low Lorena happy sounds have left today
The banjos softly play Lorena where once they rang so loud and gay
I hardly feel the cold Lorena I pray this darkness soon will pass
We'll sing those songs again Lorena you'll be in my arms at last
**********
11.
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Four score and seven years ago so began the message
Of a war-weary President Abraham Lincoln
A message written on the back of an envelope on a train
On the way to dedicate a battlefield
Where men from the north and south had died at Gettysburg Pennsylvania
Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent
A new nation conceived in liberty
And dedicated in the proposition that all men are created equal
Now we're engaged in a great Civil War
Testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived
And so dedicated can long endure
We are met on a great battlefield of that war
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field
As the final resting place for those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live
It is altogether fitting and proper thast we should do this
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate
We cannot hallow this ground
For the brave men living and dead who struggled here
Have consecreated it far above our poor power to add or decract
The world will little notice or long remember what we say here
But it can never forget what they did here
It is for us the living rather to be dedicasted here to the unfinished work
Which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us
That from these honored dead we take increased devotion
To that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not nhave died
In vain and that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom
And the government of the peopole by the people and for the people
Shall not perish froim the earth
**********
12.
WEST
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Then came West Virginia came Nevada and Nebraska
Colorado and Dakota, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming
And the West was opened up
And for ther first time it seems
That the nation was really conscious of itself as a nation
Railroad tracks crossed the land as did telegraph wires
Public opinion and great ideas were now reflected on a national basis
And never in this land before us and never more hereafter
Will a land know such a people as a man we call a cowboy
His hat and his bandana his unique brand of lingo
All his devil deeds of daring bold and skillful in the saddle
Brave and daring in the rambling wild and eager in exploring
Land that calls him with a challenge
But the land was already claimed by a people
When the cowboy came and when the soldiers came
The story of the American Indian is in a lot of ways a story of tragedy
Like that day at Wounded Knee South Dakota
**********
13.
BIG FOOT
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Big Foot was an Indian chief of the Miniconioux Band
A band of Miniconioux Sioux from South Dakota land
Big Foot said to Custer stay away from Crazy Horse
But Custer crossed into Sioux land and he never came back across
Then Big Foot led his people to a place called Wounded Knee
And they found themselves surrounded by the 7th Calvary
Big chief Big Foot rise up from your bed
Miniconioux babies cry for their mothers lying dead
Big Foot was down with the fever when he reached Wounded Knee
And his people all were prisoners of the 7th Calvary
Two hundred women and children and another hundred men
Raised up a white flag of peace but peace did not begin
An accidental gunshot and Big Foot was first to die
And over the noise of the rifles you could hear the babies cry
Big chief Big Foot it's good that you can't see
Revenge is being robbed by Custer's 7th Calvary
Then smoke hung over the canyon on the cold December day
All was dead and dying around where Big Foot lay
Farther on up in the canyon some had tried to run and hide
But death showed no favors women men and children died
One side called that masacre the other a victory
But the white flag is still waving today at Wounded Knee
Big chief Big Foot your Miniconioux band
Is mourned and remembered here in South Dakota land
Big chief Big Foot your Miniconioux band
Is mourned and remembered here in South Dakota land
**********
14.
LIKE A YOUNG COLT
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Like a young Colt the country was now growing fast
Passanger trains in the East were traveling a hundred miles an hour
People in the country could buy clothes by mail order
And get 'em back within two weeks
After twenty years or more the South was still mendin' its wounds from a Civil
War
But with all the country's problems the Union was solid
Great American novelists and poets were comin' into own
People were expressin' their love for America in song and poem
And in South Carolina a high-toned southern gentleman
Expressed his love and admiration for him President James A Garfield in such a
way
**********
15.
MR. GARFIELD
(Jack Elliott)
« © '65 House Of Cash, BMI / Unichappell Music, BMI »
Me and my brother was down close to the depot when I heard a report of a pistol
I hollered I wonder what was that he run out and come back and he said
That was a report of a pistol and I thought I's gonna faint when he said
Mr Garfield's been shot down shot down shot down Mr Garfield's been shot down
low
Lord I knew the President was supposed to be down the depot that day
But I just would't let myself believe that he'd been shot
And my bother run out there and everybody was all confused
And hollerin' a runnin' round and I steeped up to this one lady and I said
Ma'm what was it that happened Ma'm and she said
Mr Garfield's been shot down shot down shot down Mr Garfield's been shot down
low
Well that looked like everybody felt just about as bad as I did
And everybody started drift off to home and me and my brother did too
Then in a few weeks later I heard that the President was still alive
So I told my brother I said hey let's get on the train
And go the that Big House up there and see how the President is
Let's go up there to where he's laid up hurt and sick we'd see him
So we went on up there and that big White House
And there was a soldier boy standin' round outside
And I sidled up to him and I said to that soldier boy
I said who was it that did it who was it that shoot the President
And he said it was Charlie Guiteau that shoot Mr Garfield
And I said Charlie Guiteau done shot down a good man good man
Charlie Guiteau done shot down a good man low
Charlie Guiteau done shot down a good man good man
That soldier boy said that Miss Lucretia Garfield was always at his bedside
In the heat of the day fannin' him when he was hot
And he said just that mornin' that he had been in
He'd overheard Miss Lucretia and Mr Garfield talkin'
And Mr Garfield said Crete honey - he called her Crete
He said Crete honey if somethin' worse happens to me
He said get yourself a good man
And she said now James - she called him James
She said James I won't hear to that now cause I love you too much
But he said you'll make some good man a good wife good wife
You'll make some man a good wife gal
Don't pull in single harness all your life good gal
Don't pull in single harness all your life
So what he said don't pull in single harness all your life
Well a little while later we come back around there and things have changed
The flag was hangin' halfway up the flagpole and everybody was cryin'
And standin' around sad
And I walked back up to this soldier boy and I said
Soldier boy is he is Mr Garfield and he said yeah he's gone
Gonna lay him by that cold lonesome branch down low
Mr Garfield's been shot down low
Oh Mr Garfield's been shot down shot down shot down
Mr Garfield's been shot down low
Have you heard the news Mr Garfield's been shot down shot down shot down
Mr Garfield's been shot down low Lord
**********
16.
PROUD LAND
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Then came Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico was 47
48 was Arizona and the land was all a Union
Now a proud strong land swelled its chest and kept on growing
She survived many wars but now the great war the war to all the wars
Dealth her a stunning blow
Two million men shipped overseas to help win the great war
**********
17.
BIG BATTLE
(Johnny Cash)
« © '61 Anne Rachel Music, ASCAP / Song Of Cash Music,
ASCAP »
I think sir the battle is over and the young soldier laid down his gun
I'm tired of running for cover for I think the bottle is done
Oh see over there where we fought them it's quiet for they've all gone away
All left is the dead and the dying the ground's covered with them today
So you think the battle is over and you even lay down your gun
You carelessly rise from you cover for you think the battle is done
Now boy hit the dirt listen to me for I'm still the one in command
Get flat on the ground here beside me and lay your ear hard to the sand
Can you hear the deafening rumble can you feel the trembling ground
It's not just the horses and wagons that make such a deafening sound
The fight yet to come's not with cannon nor will the fight be hand to hand
No one will regroup the forces no charge will a general command
The battle will rage in the bosom of mother and sweetheart and wife
Brother and sister and daughter will grieve for the rest of their lives
Now go ahead rise from your cover be thankful that God let you live
Go fight the rest of the battle for those who gave all they could give
I see sir the battle's not over the battle has only begun
The rest of this battle will cover the part that has blackened the sun
For though there's no sound of the cannon and though there's no smoke in the sky
I'm dropping the gun and the sabre and ready for the battle am I
**********
18.
ON WHEELS AND WINGS
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Now the nation moved on wheels
Will Rogers said we hold the distinction on being the only nation
In the history of the world ever to go to the poorhouse in an automobile
Ha ha ha well the country went to the poorhouse all right
Then it got back to its feet
To become the mose powerful nation in the history of the world
And she spread her wings and she flew
Yep the nation was flying now taking to the air
In a few hours time you could fly over all those trails blazed by the pioneers
Phonographs were playing the hit songs of the day
Alexander's Ragtime Band and My Mother Was A Lady
And here's a song my mama sang back about 1910 or 1950
**********
19.
COME TAKE A TRIP IN MY AIR SHIP
(arr. Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Come take a trip in my airship come take a trip round the stars
Come take a sail around Venus come take a sail around Mars
No one to watch while we're kissing no one to see while we spoon
Come take a trip in my airship we'll visit the Man in the Moon
**********
20.
REACHING FOR THE STARS
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
Add Alaska and Hawaii make the total half a hundred
Half a hundred states united joined together as one body
Arms that reach across the northland to the far off state Alaska
Arms that reach across the water to the far off state Hawaii
Arms of some two hundred million
Thanking God for having brought us safely thus far in our journey
We're reaching for the stars that beckon reaching for the stars that call us
And we answer back still louder by the power of God that brought us
We are reaching we are reaching reaching for the stars tomorrow
**********
21.
THESE ARE MY PEOPLE
(Johnny Cash)
« © '72 Song Of Cash Music, ASCAP »
These are my people this is the land where my forefathers lie
These are my people in brotherhood we're heirs of a creed to live by
A creed that proclaims that by loved ones blood stains
This is my land and these are my people
These are my people they were born on and lived by the land
These are my people and their cities were raised by hard working hands
And their faces to tell that they're holding on well
To this their land yes these are my people
These are my people these are the ones who will reach for the stars
These are my people that a light of the earth you can tell they are ours
A new step to take and a new day will break
For this my land yes these are my people these're my people hmm
**********
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