The Ballad of Red, White, and Blue

In a city of stone, in a Manhattan room A judgment was passed, sealing a powerful man's doom The jury they sat, and the whole world did see A former commander charged with a felony Thirty-four counts, they read them out slow A seed of division, now watch how it grows. Oh, the road keeps on winding, the dust settles deep And the headlines are promises leaders don't keep I've seen this tale written in parchment and stone

The king and the peasant, each on a high throne The story gets older, the telling gets new Singin' the ballad of red, white, and blue. The sky over Texas turned angry and green The meanest old twister the county had seen It tore through the prairie, it ripped through the town While the sun in the south beat mercilessly down From floodin' to fire, the fever it breaks And the land tells a story of all our mistakes.

Oh, the road keeps on winding, the dust settles deep And the headlines are promises leaders don't keep I've seen this tale written in parchment and stone The king and the peasant, each on a high throne The story gets older, the telling gets new Singin' the ballad of red, white, and blue. Now the lawman's at the border, drawing lines in the sand Saying 'turn back, go homeward, this ain't your promised land.' And the man with no money to pay for a song

Curses the giant who's done him the wrong From the courthouse to the concert, it's all just the same A fight over power, a high-stakes game. Yeah, the headlines they fade like the ink on my hand Just another storyteller in a weary old land Singin' the ballad of me and of you Yeah, the ballad of red, white, and blue.