After the Revolution

På den CD som följer med nummer 2 2008 av det amerikanska folkmusikmagasinet Sing Out! finns bland annat ”After the Revolution” av och med David Rovics. Rovics har jag bland annat hört på ABF-huset i Stockholm, och jag finns sen dess på hans mailing list. Rovics hör avgjort till de bästa politiska sångarna i USA av i dag.

I Sing Out! finns, i detta fall som när det gäller alla andra sånger som förekommer på CDn – sammanlagt 20 – också text, noter och ackord.

After the Revolution

Text och musik: David Rovics, 2008

It was a time I’ll always remember
Because I could never forget
How reality came down around us
Like some Western movie set
And once the dust all settled
The sun shone so bright
And a great calm came over us
Like it was all gonna be alright
That’s how it felt to be alive
After the revolution

From Groton to Tacoma
On many a factory floor
The workers talked about solidarity
And refused to build weapons of war
No more will we make missiles
We’re gonna do something different
And for the first time
Their children were proud of their parents
And somewhere in Gaza, a little boy smiled and cried
After the revolution

Prison doors swung up
And mothers hugged their sons
The Liberty Bell was ringing
When the cops put down their guns
A million innocent people
Lit up in the springtime air
And Mumia and Leonard and Sarah Jane Olson
Took a walk in Tomkins Square
And they talked about what they’d do now
After the revolution

The debts were all forgiven
In all the neo-colonies
And the soldiers left their bases
Went back to their families
And a non-agression treaty
Was signed with every sovereign state
And all the terrorist groups disbanded
With no empire left to hate
And they all started planting olive trees
After the revolution

George Bush and Henry Kissinger
Were sent off to the World Court
Their plans for global domination
Were pre-emptively cut short
Their weapons of mass destruction
Were inspected and destroyed
The battleships were dismantled
Never again to be deployed
And the world brethed a sigh of relief
After the revolution

Solar panels were on the rooftops
Trains upon the tracks
Organic food was in the markets
And all the billionaires
Had to learn how to share
And Bill Gates was told to quit his whining
When he said it wasn’t fair
And his mansion became a collective farm
After the revolution

And all the political poets
Couldn’t think of what to say
So they all decided
To live life for today
I spent a few years catching up
With all my friends and lovers
Sleeping ’til eleven
Home beneath the covers
And I learned how to play the banjo
After the revolution

Fast det är förstås svårt att föreställa sig hur en sådan här samhällsomvälvning skulle gå till i USA.

Hur som helst: en fin låt är det!