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    This CD features Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) playing lead guitar on "London Is Burning," and a stellar cast of other musicians including Nick Angelo and Asher Fulero. Other tracks include "If Only It Were True," "Watch Out for the Cops," and "Israeli Geography 101." (Note that the CD is not a double album -- the acoustic version of the CD which makes the album a double album only comes with the digital version, and on the thumb drive.)

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bearing Witness, Notes From A Holocaust, Live in Boulder, Killing the Messenger, May Day, It's Been A Year, Rebel Songs, Say Their Names, and 23 more. , and , .

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about

Change a few words, and this song could be about so many different veterans of war, and their sons.

lyrics

I grew up in Lawrence, there by the water
In the shadow of a textile mill
Sometimes I feel just like that building
Empty but standing there still
I liked the President, I liked the union
I believed in the Rights of Man
So I signed up when it was time to fight Hitler
And they sent me off to Japan

I couldn't describe it, it was all just so bad
I kept my head down, tried to stay alive
I got shot in the leg, took me out of the action
So I was lucky enough to survive
I came home from the war, met a good woman named Maria
We had ourselves a son
When I first saw Jim's face, the first thing I thought
I hope he never has to carry a gun

It was a long time ago, another life that I had
A little boy who called me dad

I'd have terrible dreams of my time overseas
But otherwise life was alright
I had a job and a wife and a fine little lad
With eyes so cheery and bright
When his number came up I said let's move up north
To Halifax, what do you say?
But my Jim wouldn't have it, he said if I'm gonna be drafted
I don't want to run away

Chorus

After just a few months the letters stopped coming
And one morning a knock on the door
Two nervous young men handed me a flag
Said your son died in the war
He gave his life for his country was what the man said
He didn't believe it and neither did I
I closed the front door, dropped the flag on the floor
And I sat down in Jim's room and cried

Chorus

It was less than a year when my wife said to me
You look so much like our little Jim
She had to go, I don't blame her, you know
I also remind me of him
Now it's been forty years, I'd be a grandpa by now
But instead I just sit here alone
No one calls much these days, but anytime the phone rings
I think maybe the boy's coming back home

Chorus

credits

from Meanwhile In Afghanistan (double album), released January 5, 2015

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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