Shut up and Sing

I was told not long ago that I can't talk the way I do
Singers shouldn't share their current affairs or worldly views
Sayin' somethin' off the wall just might bend folks outta shape
Hard workin' people spend their paychecks to show up and escape
So put a plug in what you think
Man, shut up and sing

So I pulled out my guitar and I gave it a strum
And I thought about the way I'd lay it out there if one
Lone song was all I had to make it all make half sense
To put some heart back on the forefront, collective consciousness
Can't be dead as my six strings
I wondered, what would I shut up and sing?
Then it hit me

Shut up and sing, "Lord have mercy on all us earthly fools"
There's poison in our rhetoric and bullets in our schools
So I'll sing, "What the hell is going on around here?"
Let's take these blinders off our
Eyes and pull the cotton from our ears
Until somebody says somethin' that means somethin'
I'll shut up and sing

Sometimes sayin' nothin' says it all and then some more
Conjecture causes bull and fuels unnecessary wars
Poets know hiding the truth somewhere between the lines somehow
Makes it seem worth more for those looking to find
Some answers to the troubles this life brings
Shut up and sing

Shut up and sing, "Lord forgive us for we know not what we do"
They're shouting from the mountains down to south border towns too
Shut up and sing, "What the hell is going on around here?"
Let's take these blinders off our
Eyes and pull the cotton from our ears
Till somebody says somethin' that means something
I'll shut up and sing

Songs got ways of going places folks have never been
From one side of the world round and round and back again
Universal unity ain't realistic, no, oh
But who says we can't hum one for the hell of it all?
You never know how true a melody might ring till
You shut up and sing