This is a recipe for cocaine
Take one part sweat and toil and another of pain
Take another generation lost in violent struggle
And a hundred villages turned into ashes and rubble.
Take some cities on fire with a desperate rage and sorrow
And a million young people wonder if they'll be living tomorrow
Add a nation of prisons locking up people for profit
And a hundred million people doing nothing to stop it.
Take a million pounds of herbicide
Raining down upon the countryside
Five hundred years of genocide
And Monsanto sees its profits rise…
Take some agents in the pay of the CIA
Selling crack in the neighborhoods of LA
And the money flows down to the death squad crews
But you never heard that story on the news..
Take a sacred plant with an ancient lore
Make it a disease, then sell it as a cure
With a bottle of the bitterest memory
You measure out a cup..
Stir it up..
Stir it up.
This is a recipe for empire
Take the dream of freedom to which all people aspire
Add a gallon of fear, then put it through the gears
Of a thousand years of angry tears
Put a pinch in the wound of a salt called law.
Grind it all into dust and put it in a box
Then sell us fake keys to its iron locks
Put it on a pedestal way up high
And then tell us it's the dream for which we'll die..
Take a culture bent on a suicide trip
When they offer up their poison then we'll take a sip
Add an ounce to cope, TV or dope
Future hanging from a slender rope..
You might say that it's 1492
With a subtler plan and a better-armed crew
Grind up a little bit of history
And measure out a cup
Stir it up..
Stir it up..
There is no recipe for resistance
It rises like a blood red moon from a precious persistence
Its alive like the breathing of a brand new dawn
In the echoes of the steps of those who've gone on..
..before
It's a glimmer of hope like a ancient seed
Yearning in the dark for the light it needs
It's the blazing sun of an angry land
Breaking through the shadows like an outstretched hand..
Justice comes with hope and rage
Written in dreams on history's page
The fire of a people who have had enough
Stir it up,
Stir it up,
Stir it up,
Stir it up..
We come - like a comet newborn, like the sun that arises at morning
We come - like the furious tempest, that follows a thundercloud's warning
We come - like the fiery lava, from the cloud covered mountains volcanic
We come - like a storm from the North, that the oceans awake to in panic.
We come - because tyrants imagine that humanity is only their throne
We come - because Peace has been nourished by bullets and cannons alone
We come - because one world is two and we face one another with rage
We come - because guards have been posted to keep out the hope of the age.
We come - because tyranny planted our seeds in the hot desert sand
We come - because masters have kindled our fury with every command
We come - because no one can murder the life-giving seed in our veins
We come - because liberty cannot forever be fettered by chains.
Take one part sweat and toil and another of pain
Take another generation lost in violent struggle
And a hundred villages turned into ashes and rubble.
Take some cities on fire with a desperate rage and sorrow
And a million young people wonder if they'll be living tomorrow
Add a nation of prisons locking up people for profit
And a hundred million people doing nothing to stop it.
Take a million pounds of herbicide
Raining down upon the countryside
Five hundred years of genocide
And Monsanto sees its profits rise…
Take some agents in the pay of the CIA
Selling crack in the neighborhoods of LA
And the money flows down to the death squad crews
But you never heard that story on the news..
Take a sacred plant with an ancient lore
Make it a disease, then sell it as a cure
With a bottle of the bitterest memory
You measure out a cup..
Stir it up..
Stir it up.
This is a recipe for empire
Take the dream of freedom to which all people aspire
Add a gallon of fear, then put it through the gears
Of a thousand years of angry tears
Put a pinch in the wound of a salt called law.
Grind it all into dust and put it in a box
Then sell us fake keys to its iron locks
Put it on a pedestal way up high
And then tell us it's the dream for which we'll die..
Take a culture bent on a suicide trip
When they offer up their poison then we'll take a sip
Add an ounce to cope, TV or dope
Future hanging from a slender rope..
You might say that it's 1492
With a subtler plan and a better-armed crew
Grind up a little bit of history
And measure out a cup
Stir it up..
Stir it up..
There is no recipe for resistance
It rises like a blood red moon from a precious persistence
Its alive like the breathing of a brand new dawn
In the echoes of the steps of those who've gone on..
..before
It's a glimmer of hope like a ancient seed
Yearning in the dark for the light it needs
It's the blazing sun of an angry land
Breaking through the shadows like an outstretched hand..
Justice comes with hope and rage
Written in dreams on history's page
The fire of a people who have had enough
Stir it up,
Stir it up,
Stir it up,
Stir it up..
We come - like a comet newborn, like the sun that arises at morning
We come - like the furious tempest, that follows a thundercloud's warning
We come - like the fiery lava, from the cloud covered mountains volcanic
We come - like a storm from the North, that the oceans awake to in panic.
We come - because tyrants imagine that humanity is only their throne
We come - because Peace has been nourished by bullets and cannons alone
We come - because one world is two and we face one another with rage
We come - because guards have been posted to keep out the hope of the age.
We come - because tyranny planted our seeds in the hot desert sand
We come - because masters have kindled our fury with every command
We come - because no one can murder the life-giving seed in our veins
We come - because liberty cannot forever be fettered by chains.
inviata da giorgio - 7/1/2010 - 08:06
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Album: Northern Spy (live)
(with Seth Yentis on Cello)
Lyrics and Music by Ethan Miller, except the finale: a part of a Joseph Bovshover's poem “Revolution” (also set to music by Dick Gaughan in 1982)