Freedom
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

I'm a little too shy to ask you baby
But tonight I'm in need of a friend
I've been running in the jungle so long
I'm more at ease with my enemies than I am holding your hand

I've seen people cryin' out for justice
I've seen people abandoned by the world
I've seen children whose eyes are so helpless
I've seen people fighting, fighting, fighting for

Freedom - crying out for
Freedom - dying
Freedom - it's all around us baby
Freedom - what you gonna do with your life?

Don't be afraid pretty baby
I know I'm a stranger to your eyes
I guess I ain't as pretty as you're used to
My body's a little bit battered from having no place to hide

I've seen people hungry for an answer
I've seen people crying to be heard
I've seen people tired of waiting
I've seen people fighting, fighting for

Freedom
Freedom - crying out for
Freedom - dying
Freedom - what you gonna do with your life?

Trail of Broken Treaties
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

A change is forever - mine came today
Is what's best in us worth trying to save?
I've raised my empty hand
Too many brothers and sisters
Gunned down by the government man

The land is my mother
She is worth dying for
I've walked the path of peace
But I ain't running no more

Ain't no love here
Love's been sacrificed
Promises buried beneath
The trail of broken treaties

They come with numb senses
They come with hearts of stone
No knowledge no honor
Digging up my grandfather's bones

They come to buy and steal
But they don't understand
We're only here to watch over
No one can own the land

They got their gold and their silver
Money won't be enough
When they try to explain to their children
Why they've poisoned their blood

Ain't no love here
Love's been sacrificed
Promises buried beneath
The trail of broken treaties

I am lightning
Rainbow
Earth and night
The sky is crying

The night is falling
God shed his tears
I can see him so clearly
I've been here ten thousand years

As long as the four winds blow
Our spirits remain
The four winds will never
Blow away America's shame

Pretoria
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

I was standing in Pretoria
Waiting for the sky to fall

Impilo Geyethu [life is for living - life is ours]
Thina Sigidela Phambili [we will not wait - we dance forward]

I am like any other man - I don't complain
But my family's so far away
I want to be with them someday
Men outside my window dressed in mask - they live a lie
But there's one truth that they cannot deny
Their blood's the same color as mine

I am not the prisoner today
You've been too long your soul locked away
Look around there is so much
What are you so afraid of?

Pretoria

Gather strength children say goodbye to the past
Dry your eyes and prepare to dance
The dance of freedom at last
Put your hand here touch me now
What you feel is what's lost when we're kept apart
It's the beating of your own heart

I'm no soldier - no politician
I'm just a working man whose time has come
Look around there is so much
What are you so afraid of?

Impilo Geyethu
Thina Sigidela Phambili
Pretoria
Come dance with us

I was standing in Pretoria
Waiting for the sky to fall
And the eyes of the war crimes icons
Stared down with false immortality
The fallen flowers of the purple jacaranda
Covered the blood on the streets
The faces of the statues are tainted
With an unclean righteousness
But inside they're crumbling
They know they ain't got much time left
In Pretoria

Bitter Fruit
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

I was born lucky they always say
I work in these fields of plenty
Sweat for the company far away
Fruit once sweet now has bitter taste

My father was a union man
Very proud and outspoken
They came and took him when I was young
I will fight 'till his work is done

And my children are hungry
To taste the sweet life
Though my eyes have grown tired
Their desire keeps me alive

I will gather no more of your bitter fruit

I have a sister she loves to dream
Now she works right beside me
We work the land we can never own
Someday we'll reap what we have sown

I don't look east I don't look west
I don't understand their accent
If it's not soldiers it's foreign debt
But they haven't won this one yet

Soon from the fields will come fire
To cleanse the lies from all sides
The flames of freedom grow higher
Until desire - is satisfied

I will gather no more of your bitter fruit

And they want to help in America
And the guns they come from America
But they fight against us North America
Why are the people so quiet in America?

No More Party's
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

I don't need nobody
tell me what to do
You can't wear me out baby
I ain't gonna live like you

I don't need nobody
Sayin' their party speaks for me
Keep your lies and your compromise
I got enough of my own personality

Everybody's waitin'
Everybody's prayin'
Everybody's sayin' we have had enough
Ain't nothin' getting better
But nothin' lasts forever
We got to stand together

No more party's
Got my own party right here

(They try to tell you)
Don't ask no questions
Don't try to use your mind
Don't take responsibility baby
Just follow the party line

Like sheep to the slaughter
We keep the fat cats fat
What people need what people want
When we gonna start talkin' 'bout that

Everybody's sellin'
Ain't nobody helpin'
Ain't nobody tellin' us the truth
Everybody's runnin'
Ain't no savior comin'
Promises mean nothin'

No more party's
Got my own party right here

Are you a Democrat? (Do you know where you're at?)
Are you a Republican? (Look at the shape you're in)
Are you a Communist? (What do we mean by this?)
What do we mean by this? (I can't even guess)

Can't You Feel the Fire
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

Sometimes in moments of madness
Is the only time we clearly see
In a society that crushes desire
While telling us we've been set free
And the leaders we have chosen
Speak a language no one understands
We've been depending on the kindness of strangers
To lead us to the promised land
Ain't no thunder - lightning
Stronger baby than the truth
Can't you feel the fire - burning
It's your destiny unrealized
Can't you feel the fire - burning
It's been inside you all the time
I felt good I felt connected
I never thought about it twice
Ain't it hard to wake up and discover
You've been manipulated your whole life
Hold me a little closer
The war ain't so far away
There's hard questions that will have to be answered
We ain't waiting to ask them one more day
Ain't no thunder - lightning
Stronger baby than the truth
Can't you feel the fire - burning
It's your destiny unrealized
Can't you feel the fire - burning
It's been inside you all the time

Native American
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

Ho Ka Hey Wah Nah
Ho Ka Hey Wah Nah Woh
Ho Ka Hey Wah Nah
Ho Ka Hey Wah Nah Woh
[War Cry of the Lakota Sioux - "Let's Go - Now"]

Life was forever when we were young
The land was protected for everyone
Forever as long as the rivers run
But now the water no longer comes

And now all that remains
Is darkness and poisoned earth
And now before it's too late
We must provide our own new birth

I am Native American

The question of honor you must decide
The soul of the nation has been denied
Our dreams have been stolen before our eyes
How do you say there's no tomorrow to a child?

From us there is much to learn
There is so much you've forgotten
You can't change me
Try and understand
I am proud of who I am

I am Native American

We must try and remember what we're here for
You will suffer the darkness alone no more
You will have the strength of all of us gathered here today
That is something they can never take away

I am Native American

Sanctuary
Steven Van Zandt (Blue Midnight Music, 1986)

Everybody get out on the floor
We ain't gonna live this lie no more
Baby if you feel it raise your hand
You ain't alone just shout it with the band - Sanctuary

America's on trial
There's been convictions but no crime
Our government's conspired
To make Jesus a liar

We got brothers and sisters in trouble
They're knocking on our door
Somebody who ain't qualified says who will live and who will die
Somebody tell me
What's that lady standing in all that water for?

Don't tell me stories of long gone glory
It's time to keep the promise
Give somebody sanctuary
Don't let me down now we've come too far now
Open your heart now
Give somebody sanctuary

Pharoah has a new name
We live blind in the eye of the hurricane
Our conscience has slowly been bought off
We're mute witness to the new holocaust

We are here standing for freedom
Justice for all down the line
Somebody who ain't qualified says who will live and who will die
Somebody tell me
What's that piece of paper mean that all those suckers signed?

We are the enemy
We are the hypocrites
We are the morally vacant
We are the terrorists
What a shame

Brothers and sisters in trouble
Give me your tired your poor
Somebody who ain't qualified says who will live and who will die
Somebody tell me
What's that lady standing in all that water for?

Song lyrics are reproduced by kind permission of Steven Van Zandt.