The New World

Was it rage or relief or garish grief
Callous and coarse in kind?
An eye for an eye for an eye, I suppose
And soon we'll all be blind
You give a man a gun, you tell him who to kill
You teach him how to turn and shoot
But someday, man, he's gonna cut the strings
And turn that gun on you
And then you're gonna say "He was mad all along!"
And add him to your list of names
And fight fire with fire with fire with fire
As the world goes up in flames
While the kings and their squires stand in their squares
Soaked in black gold and blood
Like lambs leading lions into the fray
They've all gotten lost in the flood

And I say, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water

It's easy to admire progress
When you're on the side that lives
But when innocence dies with every drone that flies
Well, no one really wins
But you need someone to blame, so you pick a name
And the truth is up to you
Their pulses rise while your numbers fall
So any name will do
And this wild wind that you're blowin'
Will blow right back again
And then before you know it
You've lost 5,000 men
While the kings and their squires stand in their squares
Like a pack of puppeteers
You're the best decision
They've made in 20 years

And I say, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water

I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water

When I was a child, I thought like a child
I believed you when you spoke
It was a dark and stormy moment
That morning when I woke
To find the blood on the money
Had turned the gold red
And when it all disappears the system is dead
But it's just fool's folly, this freedom charade
I refuse to be the fool dancing in your parade
While the kings and their squires stand in their squares
Soaked in black gold and blood
Like lambs leading lions into the fray
They've all gotten lost in the flood
And they're taking everybody with them
In the words that they spew
24 hours a day, 7 days and nothing new
If I'm going down, I'm going down
Going down a free man
I will not be a slave in your false promises land

I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water
I said, Lord, take me down
Down to the water