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The Ballad of Jimmy Wilson

Ewan MacColl
Language: English


Ewan MacColl


In Alabama, nineteen-fifty-eight,
The cost of human life is very law,
A man that’s black is trampled down
Just like men were a thousand years ago.

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

Five-thousand years ago, a million men
were gathered into royal Egypt’s hands,
were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sands.

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

Mary’s Son walked through a land of woe
Dreaming of the world as it could be,
The good and lawful men of Rome
Nailed Him like a robber to the tree.

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

In Britain just a hundred years ago
The jails were full of poor and hungry men.
Diggers, Chartists, many more,
Fought and died and rose to fight again.

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

Last year a Negro stole a dollar bill,
The Judge he says, "We mustn't be severe,
Instead of death, we’ll give him life
Imprisonment to show there's justice here."

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

And so, throughout the ages, we have seen
How progress marches ever on its way,
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today.

But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.

The plague still runs throughout the world to day,
Johannesburg to Notting Hill and back
A plague of ignorance and hate
Men - walk in fear because their skin is black.

In these more enlightened days,
No room for all these savage ways,
Leave them, let them go!
Now every man should walk his road in peace,
LET ME BE FREE.



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