Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly Nelly look at what I see
He's riding into town on a sway back mule
Got a tall black hat and he looks like a fool
He sure is talkin' like he's been to school
And it's 1853 [1]
Hey Nelly Nelly, listen what he's sayin'
Hey Nelly Nelly, he says it's gettin' late
And he says them black folks should all be free
To walk around the same as you and me
He's talkin' 'bout a thing he calls democracy
And it's 1858 [2]
Hey Nelly Nelly hear the band a playing
Hey Nelly Nelly, hand me down my gun
"Cause the men are cheerin' and the boys are too
They're all puttin' on their coats of blue
I can't sit around here and talk to you
'Cause it's 1861 [3]
Hey Nelly Nelly, now the fightin' is over
Hey Nelly Nelly, I've come back alive
My coat of blue is stained with red
And the man in the tall black hat is dead
We sure will remember all the things he said
In 1865 [4]
Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly Nelly, look at what I see
I see white folks and colored walkin' side by side
They're walkin' in a column that's a century wide
It's still a long and a hard and a bloody ride
In 1963 [5]
[Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window
Hey Nellie Nellie, time to make a row
I see white folk and black folk side by side
Marching in a column a century wide
From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide
I feel things changing now
From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide
Things are changing now]
Hey Nelly Nelly look at what I see
He's riding into town on a sway back mule
Got a tall black hat and he looks like a fool
He sure is talkin' like he's been to school
And it's 1853 [1]
Hey Nelly Nelly, listen what he's sayin'
Hey Nelly Nelly, he says it's gettin' late
And he says them black folks should all be free
To walk around the same as you and me
He's talkin' 'bout a thing he calls democracy
And it's 1858 [2]
Hey Nelly Nelly hear the band a playing
Hey Nelly Nelly, hand me down my gun
"Cause the men are cheerin' and the boys are too
They're all puttin' on their coats of blue
I can't sit around here and talk to you
'Cause it's 1861 [3]
Hey Nelly Nelly, now the fightin' is over
Hey Nelly Nelly, I've come back alive
My coat of blue is stained with red
And the man in the tall black hat is dead
We sure will remember all the things he said
In 1865 [4]
Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window
Hey Nelly Nelly, look at what I see
I see white folks and colored walkin' side by side
They're walkin' in a column that's a century wide
It's still a long and a hard and a bloody ride
In 1963 [5]
[Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window
Hey Nellie Nellie, time to make a row
I see white folk and black folk side by side
Marching in a column a century wide
From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide
I feel things changing now
From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide
Things are changing now]
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[1] 1855. Si sta preparando la guerra civile. In Kansas già si scontrano le milizie abolizioniste di John Brown con i cosiddetti “Border Ruffians” schiavisti.
[2] 1859. Anno della cattura ed impiccagione di John Brown, dopo un fallito tentativo di ribellione degli schiavi che il militante abolizionista cerca di suscitare con l’incursione all’arsenale militare di Harpers Ferry in Virginia.
[3] 1861. Scoppio della guerra civile americana.
[4] 1865. Fine della guerra civile americana e assassinio del presidente Abraham Lincoln ad opera di John Wilkes Booth, simpatizzante della Confederazione e fervente anti-abolizionista.
[5] Il 1963 è l’anno in cui George C. Wallace, insediandosi a governatore dell’Alabama, dichiara : “Segregazione adesso, segregazione domani e segregazione sempre!”… Il 12 giugno viene assassinato Medgar Evers… Poi il massacro di Birmingham.
Ma il 1963 è anche l’anno in cui ha inizio la “Birmingham campaign” organizzata dal movimento del reverendo King per mostrare agli occhi del mondo l’oppressione di cui sono vittime i neri d’America… E in agosto James Meredith è il primo nero a laurearsi all’università del Mississippi, mentre Martin Luther King pronuncia il suo celebre discorso I Have A Dream durante la grande “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”…