I walked through a county courthouse square
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On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there.
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I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down,
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He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town".
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I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit,
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And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it".
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He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down,
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"Is this the first time you've been to our little town"
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I said, "I think it is"
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He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of
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That Ragged Old Flag
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"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
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When Washington took it across the Delaware.
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and It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,
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writing "Say Can You See"
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It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson
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tugging at its seams.
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and It almost fell at the Alamo
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beside the Texas flag,
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But she waved on though.
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She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
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And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
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There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
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And the south wind blew hard on
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That Ragged Old Flag
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"On Flanders Field in World War I,
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She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun,
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She turned blood red in World War II
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She hung limp, and low, a time or two,
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She was in Korea, Vietnam, She went where she was sent
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by her Uncle Sam.
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She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
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and now they've about quit wavin' back here at home
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in her own good land here She's been abused,
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She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused,
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And the government for which she stands
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Has been scandalized throughout out the land.
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And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' thin,
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But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.
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Cause she's been through the fire before
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and i believe she can take a whole lot more.
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"So we raise her up every morning
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And we bring her down slow every night,
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We don't let her touch the ground,
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And we fold her up right.
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On second thought
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I *do* like to brag
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Cause I'm mighty proud of
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That Ragged Old Flag"
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-----------------
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Ragged Old Flag
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Johnny Cash |