Really, Really Listen!

Really, Really Listen!

Oh, it's time, time, time, time we learned to listen,
really, really listen,
to the things we all are saying,
we somehow really think folks ought to hear.
With loud, loud voices, are we speakin with the truth?
Are we shoutin with compassion? Do we listen to our youth?
Will we build a world together
where we’re dealin fair and square,
Or let them lead us by our noses to free lunches with less taxes,
for the rich whose load we bear?

Yes, they’d buy the king of Memphis and his music for a song,
but his soul rests in the bottomlands
where we labor all night long,
while the voices that love him rock and roll through the night,
set our hearts on fire, lead us to the morning light.
Oh yeah, set our hearts on fire, rock and rollin' thru the night.

Our grandfathers sweated and our grandfathers fought
for the freedom for us all to pay the taxes that we ought,
for the right for injustice to be aired throughout the land,
in courts we could count on to take a righteous stand
for the millions who stand before the judge.

But the justices are blinded by the power they’ve been handed
to give businesses the voice and the votes they’ve demanded;
They blessed machines to count the votes
that can’t be recounted;
and even when it’s close, the exit poll’s discounted.

The spin-meister’s caught us in the web of his antenna,
and we hardly ever know if what he’s seein’s what we hear.
It’s just the same old shell game we’ve lost so many times;
they’ll win again tomorrow ‘cause it’s still a legal crime.

Yes, they’d buy the king of Memphis and his music for a song,
but his soul rests in the bottomlands
where we labor all night long,
while the voices that love him rock and roll through the night,
set our hearts on fire, lead us to the morning light.
Oh yeah, set our hearts on fire, rock and rollin' thru the night.

Copyright 2012 Chick Westover, More Than Grits (ASCAP)