Below are the lyrics to four powerful anti-establishment songs that were performed and recorded by the song-writing/singing duo, Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman, back in 2005. The pair were “Back to the Land Movement” advocates/activists from Maine. Miller and Boverman are currently part of a farm collective in a rural part of the state (for more info, click on https://www.landincommon.org/board-of-directors/ ). The album was titled “If All the Land Would Rise”, a devastating expose of some of the worst corporate/government corruption in America, corruption that was just raising its ugly head. Miller and Boverman very accurately identified some of the culprits – and named some of them.
Each of the thirteen songs on the album indicted (with calls to action) various portions of the predatory, greedy, pro-war, sociopathic, profiteering corporate/government entities that they saw with such sharp eyes back then. Now, looking back from our current perspective of the on-rushing domination of the corporations and oligarchs that rule the world, this album can only be described as so powerfully prophetic that the powers-that-be would order its banishment. And so they apparently have.
The lyrics of the four songs below had fortunately been saved in my personal computer files, naively thinking that I if ever wanted to find them, I would only have to do a Google search, little thought being given to how totalitarian the world would become in the meantime.
I know that the songs on this “disappeared” album significantly shaped or solidified my personal political beliefs as much or more than did any of the protest songs that I listened to during the folk era. I suspect that many progressive-minded individuals that will read some of the lyrics to the songs below will understand. Over just 16 years, the Miller/Boverman lyrics nave been banished from the internet, although for a fee, one can apparently listen to the songs at an Amazon Prime website!.To obtain a small bit of totally inadequate information that doesn’t come close to touching the importance of the album’s overall message, one can go to https://www.allmusic.com/album/if-all-the-land-would-rise-mw0001522214?1625353052721.
The titles of a handful of the “Banned Songs” from the album are as follows:
1} Simple Dirt
2] Turn Your Guns Around. Boys
3] Lonesome Traveler
4] Clear Cut
5] Tree of Life
6] No More White Lies
I would like to know if anybody has any luck in locating the lyrics to the other 9 songs.
The four protest songs that I accidentally “archived” are immediately below.
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Organized Crime
By Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman
“Behind every great fortune, there is a crime” - Balzac
We’ve all seen the movies ‘bout gangsters and thugs
About cunning mob bosses
And the lords of the drugs
But listen here closely if you’ve got the time
‘Cause I’d like to tell you ‘bout organized crime
Well the old mafiosos and cinema crooks
They may sport the pinstripes and sinister looks
But you’ll have to look elsewhere
If you’d like to find
The real perpetrators of organized crime
So raise up your hands now if you’ve got a job
Making shit wages working until your head throbs
They’re making a profit by robbing you blind
They say it’s just business, but it’s organized crime
And the more the rich got
Then the more the rich get
While everyone else lives on toil and sweat
The boss makes ten dollars, you just make a dime
It’s not fair compensation, it’s organized crime
Well the tide of prosperity lifts every boat
They say as you fall down and drown in their moat
It’s a game of roulette that you’ll lose every time
This economy’s nothing but organized crime.
Tell me who are the crooks
And who’s just getting by?
Who’s doing honest work, who’s working lies?
The real crooks go free while the poor folk do time
If you’re not angry you should be,
It’s organized crime
But this time we can’t just call up the police
‘Cause the criminals got all the cops on a leash
We’ll have to take things in our own hands this time
If we’re going to shut down their organized crime
So come on now friends, are you ready to fight?
They’ve stolen our power like it was their right
Let’s take it all back from those blood-suckin’ slime
The real perpetrators of organized crime
Now talk to your neighbors and talk to your friends
Turn off the TV and start organizing
We won’t let them get off so scot-free this time
When we topple their empire of organized crime
________________________________________________________________________
Come Home
By Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman
She thought he'd never have to go
She thought he'd never leave his home
She thought he'd watch his children grow
Then came the ringing on the phone
It was dispatch on the line
Telling him that it was time
To pack his bags and say farewell
It's time to catch a train to hell
Send them off to senseless slaughter,
What to tell our sons and daughters
When they're lying all alone?
The dark sound of distant thunder,
Another world in torn asunder
When the body bags come home
Out of high school in '93
He dreamed of getting a degree
Money was tight, there was no way
But the Army said that it would pay
Now he's traded off his life
Left his children and his wife
To die in someone else's war
What else are soldiers for?
Send them off to senseless slaughter,
What to tell our sons and daughters
When they're lying all alone?
The dark sound of distant thunder,
Another world in torn asunder
When the body bags come home
They both tried to play it cool
When the kids came home from school
"We got the news this afternoon
Your father's sure he'll be back soon."
Little Tyler spoke up first
And his eyes told of the worst
Lila shook her head and swore
"Daddy's going off to war."
(Chorus)
Her father he had done his time
Vietnam in '69
They were caught up on the ridge
He was the only one that lived
Sometimes he'd stay up 'till sunrise
And get that dark look in his eyes
From memories he couldn't hide
So he drank until he died
(Chorus)
Be all that you can be
Fight to keep this country free
And defend democracy
That's noble sentiment to me
But words can lie and words can trick
And when they lay it on real thick
Who's freedom is this anyway
Who profits from the price we pay?
Send them off to senseless slaughter,
What to tell our sons and daughters
When they're lying all alone?
The dark sound of distant thunder,
Another world in torn asunder
When the body bags come home
Come home, come home
Please come home
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Declaration of War
By Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman
In times of war, the folksingers are supposed to write peace songs
Go to candlelight vigils and lead all the people in sing-alongs
Say, “Make love not war!” And, “Have no vengeance on your enemies!
Meet violence with love - and hatred and anger with empathy!”
Now don't get me wrong, I ain't got nothing against peace songs
Or going to rallies to call for an end to the guns and the bombs
But in times like these, I feel compelled to declare my support
For the ongoing escalation of the war effort
This ain't no peace song, this is a declaration of war
This ain't no sing-along, this is the rise of a mighty roar
When the towers came down, everyone looked around for a culprit
And the media moguls and corporate elites took the pulpit
"Ain't no fault of ours if all these millions are angry
Living in rubble in crumbling hovels in poverty"
Draped in a flag, they are pointing away at their enemy
"United we stand," they say, cleverly shirking complicity
"Don't ask any questions, just follow us, we will show you the way
Rise up America, come bomb another impoverished nation today"
Now just look around as the bombs hit the ground, tell me what do you see?
Are the ones calling the shots your friends or your enemies?
Who are the victims? Who are the innocent? And who commits crimes?
And who gets to spin it the next day on the cover of the New York Times?
And furthermore, if I may ask, who are they anyway,
Who can give us our freedom and then with one vote they can take it all away?
Now I do declare they've exceeded their share of the oxygen
And we will not stand for one more command from their lips again
An eye for an eye will leave us all blind, I have heard it said
Yes, but peace without justice and struggle will surely leave a million more dead
So stand up on your feet and take to the street, this is not time for fear
Call us traitors or spies and spread all your lies but we will persevere
It's been said before and I'll say it once more, let's bring the war home
And battle the forces of greed and injustice wherever they may roam
And united we'll stand here in this land of hypocrisy
To take back our lives from the rulers and build a democracy
No more will we stand idly by while they ravage the earth and hurl flame from the sky
No more we'll be silenced, no more we'll be still
No more we'll be pillaged, no more will be killed
No more silent vigils, this time we will roar.
We'll call out the traitors and we will declare war
On the oil executives, corporate elites,
Wall street vigilantes in mountain retreats,
IMF bureaucrats, Monsanto thugs,
CIA agents with taps and with bugs,
Rich greedy landlords and real estate crooks,
Corporate lawyers with corporate law books,
Fascists in the White House and fools on the Hill,
Puppets in uniform, guns set to kill,
Racist avengers and Pentagon brutes,
Slick politicians and bankers in suits,
Old money, new money, privileged few,
Owners of Nike, Chevron, and GQ,
Pesticide pushers of chemical war,
Econ departments, Wal-Mart superstores,
Kings and their armies and princes and dukes,
Religious zealots who kill for the truth,
Free trade agreements and global control,
Smokestacks and gasoline and ozone holes…
This ain't no peace song.
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Hands on You
By Kate Boverman and Ethan Miller
“This song is dedicated to the late Maine activist and rabble-rouser Peter Holmes, from whom the chorus-line comes. Peter came to a rally after the U.S. attack on Afghanistan with a sign that read, “Hey Bush: Wait ‘till Jesus gets his hands on you!”
The song is addressed to all of those who had bad Sunday school teachers and somehow came to believe that wars, empires, armies, governments, banks, corporations, and “free trade” agreements might all be looked upon approvingly by the same great prophet who said: “Listen: it is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than it is for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle.”
You said, "God bless America," looking sincere
May the Lord be our shepherd this time
And the troops were deployed in the flash of an eye
To commit yet another imperial crime.
Do these bombs fall down as a prayer?
Whose bodies do these bullets bless?
What cynical love do you claim for yourselves
That takes those who have nothing
And leaves them with less?
All you priests who bless battleships
Like you bless wine,
What god do you serve that makes killing divine?
"Bless us, oh lord, and these all our crimes,"
To justify all that you do—
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you.
All you zealots who call yourselves "Christians,"
And pray to the lord high above
Condemning all those who are different than you
Practicing hatred while speaking of love
Confuse faith for obedience and God for a king
And bow to your master without questioning
Ask no forgiveness for the suffering you bring
Do you think this is God's work you do?
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you.
In the name of the Father, the name of the Son,
In the name of lands conquered and battles yet won,
In the name of the bullet, the dollar, the gun,
You pray to sanctify what you have done.
With the sword and the bible
And the sign of the cross,
Crusade of the righteous, the banker, the boss
In the name of your god, 30 million lives lost
What hell you have put us all through—
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you.
Tell me, who crucified Jesus?
And who crucifies this world with wars?
It's not Christians or Jews, it's people like you
Who've stolen it all and still you want more.
Perhaps you might need a reminder
About the fire that follows the flood
Do you really believe you can honor God's name
By breaking Her body and spilling Her blood?
Demand of the heavens your riches to keep
While millions will toil to sow what you reap
If the lord were your shepherd,
You'd be wolves dressed like sheep
Your confession is long overdue—
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you.
Jesus walked into the temple
Where the bankers had set up their trade
He said, "No one can serve both money and God,"
And he flipped all their tables in rage.
There are creeds of the conqueror
Disguised as the Truth
And blessed by the king up above
And there are creeds of the conquered
Who struggle and fight
For dignity, justice, and love.
Tell me who is your neighbor
And where do they live?
What do you take from them, what do you give?
Try as you might now to keep it all hid,
Your words can't disguise what you do—
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you
Wait 'till Jesus gets his hands on you.