(Richard Holler)
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I am a backseat driver from America
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They drive to the left on Falls Road
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And the man at the wheels name is Shamus
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We pass a the child on a corner he knows
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And Shamus says "now what chance has that kid got"
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And I say from the back "I don't know"
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He says "there's barbed wire at all of these exits"
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There ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go
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And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
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It's a very hard life
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It's a hard life wherever you go
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And we poison our children with hatred
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And the hard life is all that they know
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At the dairyline in Chicago
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A fat man in front of me
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He's calling black people trash to his children
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And he's the only trash here I see
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And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
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In the night when his children should sleep
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But they'll slip to their windows and see him
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They'll think that white hood's all they need
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And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
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It's a very hard life
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It's a hard life wherever you go
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And if we poison our children with hatred
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Then the hard life is all that they know
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I was a child of the sixties
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When dreams could be held through tears
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With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther
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And I belived, I believed, I believed
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Now I'm a backseat driver from America
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And I'm not at the wheel of control
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And I am guilty, I am worn, I am the root of all evil
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And I can't drive on the left side of the road
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And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
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It's a very hard life
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It's a hard life wherever you go
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And if we poison our children with hatred
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Then the hard life is all that they'll know
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And there ain't no place in this world for these kids to go
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Cause it's a hard life wherever you go
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Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham,
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Can you tell me where he's gone?
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He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
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I just looked around and he's gone.
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Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin,
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Can you tell me where he's gone?
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He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
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I just looked around and he's gone.
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Has anybody here seen my old friend John,
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Can you tell me where he's gone?
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He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
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I just looked around and he's gone.
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Didn't you love the things they stood for?
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Didn't they try to find some good in you and me?
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And we'll be free
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Someday soon it's gonna be one day
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Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby,
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Can you tell me where he's gone?
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I thought I saw him walkin' up over the hill
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With Abraham and Martin and John.
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-----------------
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Abraham, Martin And John
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| Emmylou Harris |
