The New World

Was it rage or relief or garish grief Callous and coarse in kind? An eye for an eye for an eye, I suppose And soon we'll all be blind You give a man a gun, you tell him who to kill You teach him how to turn and shoot But someday, man, he's gonna cut the strings And turn that gun on you And then you're gonna say "He was mad all along!" And add him to your list of names And fight fire with fire with fire with fire As the world goes up in flames While the kings and their squires stand in their squares Soaked in black gold and blood Like lambs leading lions into the fray They've all gotten lost in the flood And I say, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water It's easy to admire progress When you're on the side that lives But when innocence dies with every drone that flies Well, no one really wins But you need someone to blame, so you pick a name And the truth is up to you Their pulses rise while your numbers fall So any name will do And this wild wind that you're blowin' Will blow right back again And then before you know it You've lost 5,000 men While the kings and their squires stand in their squares Like a pack of puppeteers You're the best decision They've made in 20 years And I say, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water When I was a child, I thought like a child I believed you when you spoke It was a dark and stormy moment That morning when I woke To find the blood on the money Had turned the gold red And when it all disappears the system is dead But it's just fool's folly, this freedom charade I refuse to be the fool dancing in your parade While the kings and their squires stand in their squares Soaked in black gold and blood Like lambs leading lions into the fray They've all gotten lost in the flood And they're taking everybody with them In the words that they spew 24 hours a day, 7 days and nothing new If I'm going down, I'm going down Going down a free man I will not be a slave in your false promises land I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water I said, Lord, take me down Down to the water