We used t drink cough medicine bottles a vodka t'gether
We used t stay up all nite laughin and singin
And we did that when there weren't too many people doin it
Hey man - I'm sorry - // I mean I'm really sorry
I wrote many lines in the past few years but there ain't no letters in
none a the words t spell out how sorry I am
It's a complicated day
I keep rememberin the songs we used t sing an play
The songs written thirty fifty years ago
The dirt farm songs - the dust bowl songs
The depression songs - the down and out songs
The ol blues and ballads
I think a Woody's songs
I think a Woody's day
"This land I'll defend with my life if it be"
An I say t myself "Yeah that's right"
"Hitler's on the march"
"I don't wan''m takin my ground"
"I don't wan''m livin on my land"
An I see two side man
I see two roads to pick yer route
The American way or the Fascist way
When there was a strike there's only two kind of views
An two kinds of tales t tell the news
Thru the unions eyes or thru the bosses eyes
An yuh could stand on a line an look at yer friends
An stand on that same line an see yer foes
It was that easy
"Which Side're You On" ain't phony words
An they ain't from a phony song
An that was Woody's day man
Two sides
I don know what happened cause I wasn't aroun but somewhere along
the line a that used t be day things got messed up
More kinds a sides come int' the story
Folks I guess started switchin sides an makin up their own sides
There got t be so many sides that no eyes could could see the eyes facin'm
There got t be so many sides that all of'm started lookin' like each other
I don pretend to know what happened man, but somehow all sides lost their
purpose an folks forgot about other folks
I mean they must a all started goin against each other not for the good
a their side but for the good a jes their own selves
An them two simple sides that was so easy t tell apart bashed an
boomed an exploded so hard an heavy that t'day all'ts left and
made for us is the one big rockin rollin
COMPLICATED CIRCLE

Nowadays folk's brains're bamboozled an bowled over by categories
labels an slogans an advertisements that could send anybody's
head in a spin
It's hard t believe anybody's tellin the truth for what that is
I swear it's true that in some parts a the country folks believe the
finger-pointers more'n the President
It's the time a the flag wavin shotgun carryin John Birchers
It's the time a the killer dogs an killer sprays
It's the time a the billbord sign super flyin highways
It's the time a the pushbutton foods an five minute fads
It's the time a the white collar shirt an the white sheeted hood and the
white man's sun tan lotion
It's time a guns and grenades an bombs bigger'n any time's ever seen
It's the time a Liz Taylor fans - sports fans and electric fans
It's the time when a twenty year ol colored boy with his head bloody
don get too much thought from the seventy year ol senator who
wants t bomb Cuba
I don't know who the people were man that let it get this way but they
got what they wanted out a their lives an left me an you facin a
scared raped world
They frained the free thinkin air an left us with a mental institution
circle
They rotted the poor wind and left us mixed up mislead
puny breeze
They stole Abraham Lincoln's road an sold us Bill Moore's highway
They shot down trees - buried the leaves an nailed "Profess" t the
gravestone
They damned up the clear runnin river of "Love thy neighbor"
said by Jesus Christ a Bethlehem an poluted us with "I'll guard"
"the school with my body" said by governor Wallace of
Alabama
They robbed the Constitution of the land an snuck in the censors of
the mind
They bought up everythin at the auction an left us with a garbage
market a fools an fears an frustratin phoniness

Yuh ask how I'm doin Dave
I'm still singin - I'm still writin
I'm still doin all a things I used to do I guess
But the difference is probably that now I really ain't thinkin
about what I'm doing no more
I do worry no more bout the covered up lies and twisted truth in front
a my eyes
I don worry no more bout the no-talent criticizers an know-nothin
philosophizers
I don worry no more bout the cross-legged corner sitters who try an
make rules for the ones travelin in the middle a the room
I'm singin an writin what's on my own mind now
What's in my own head and what's in my own heart
I'm singin for me an a million other me's that've been forced t'gether
by the same feelin

Not by no kind a side
Not by no kind a category
People hung up and strung out
People frustrated an corked in an bottled up
People on no special form or field - age limit or class
I can't sing "Red Apple juice" no more
I gotta sing "masters a War"
I can't sing "Little Maggie" with a clear head
I gotta sing "Seven Curses" instead
I can't sing "John Henry"
I gotta sing "Hollis Brown"
I can't Sing "John Johannah" cause it's his story an his people's story
I gotta sing "With God On My Side" cause it's my story an my
people's
I can't sing "The Girl I Left Behind" cause I know what it's like
to do it
I gotta sing "Boots a Spanish Leather" cause I know what's like
to live it
But don't get me wrong now
Don think I go way out a my way not t sing no folk songs
That ain't it at all
The folk songs showed me the way
They showed me that songs can say somethin human
Without "Barbara Allen" there'd be no "Girl From The North Country"
Without no "Lone Green Valley" there'd be no "Don't Think Twice"
Without no "Jesse James" there'd be no "Davy Moore"
Without no "Twenty one Years" there'd be no "Walls a Red Wing"
Hell no
Them ol songs're the only kinda picture left t show the new born
how it used t be in them times
Them ol songs tell us what they had t run thru or walk thru or
dance thru
The ol songs tell how they loved an how they kissed
They tell us what they rejected and objected to
They laid it down an made the path
They were simple an tol the story straight
They said who they fought an what they fought for an with what they
fought with
An who they fought against
Now's a complicated day
An all I'm sayin' is'at I gotta make my own statement bout this day
I gotta write my own feelins down the same way they did it before
me in that used t be day
An I got nothin but homage an holy thinkin for the ol songs and
stories
But now there's me an you
An I'm doin what I'm doin for me
An I'm doin what I'm doin for you

I'm writin an singin for me
An I'm writin an singin for you
I'm writin an singin for me cause I'm human an I'm breathin
In a world that was made for me
I'm writin an singin for you cause yer a part a me an everythin I
stand for
I don know why I aint written t yuh
maybe cause I never write letters t'myself
yeah maybe that's why

See yuh when I get there

yer friend