This song was first released on the One World Album. It is the only album it appears on.
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I am the son of a grassland farmer
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Western Oklahoma nineteen forty three
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I always felt grateful to live in the land of the free
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I gave up my father to South Korea
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The mind of my brother to Vietnam
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Now there¡¯s a banker who says I must give up my land
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There are four generations of blood in this topsoil
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Four generations of love on this farm
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Before I give up I would gladly give up my right arm
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What are we making weapons for
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Why keep on feeding the war machine
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We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
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Take it away from the hands of the poor
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Tell me, what are we making weapons for
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I had a son and my son was a soldier
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He was so like my father, he was so much like me
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To be a good comrade was the best that he dreamed he could be
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He gave up his future to revolution
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His life to a battle that just can¡¯t be won
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For this is not living, to live at the point of a gun
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I remember the nine hundred days of Leningrad
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The sound of the dying, the cut of the cold
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I remember the moments I prayed I would never grow old
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What are we making weapons for
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Why keep on feeding the war machine
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We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
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Take it away from the hands of the poor
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Tell me, what are we making weapons for
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For the first time in my life I feel like a prisoner
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A slave to the ways of the powers that be
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And I fear for my children, as I fear for the for the future I see
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Tell me how can it be we¡¯re still fighting each other
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What does it take for a people to learn
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If our song is not sung as a chorus, we surely will burn
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What are we making weapons for
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Why keep on feeding the war machine
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We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
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Take it away from the hands of the poor
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Tell me, what are we making weapons for
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Have we forgotten
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All the lives that were given
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All the vows that were taken
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Saying never again
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Now for the first time
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This could be the last time
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If peace is our vision
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Let us begin
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Have we forgotten
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All the lives that were given
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All the vows that were taken
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Saying never again, never again
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Now for the first time
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This could be the last time
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If peace is our vision
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Let us begin, let us begin
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Words and music by John Denver
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Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)
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| John Denver |
