Ragged Old Flag - Live at The Carter Fold, Hiltons, VA, 1976

(It was about three years ago that
One afternoon, one man made that's when
When all that bad stuff was going on up here in Washington
You know when there was a pal of negativity hanging over this country
John Carter and I went to the Matheny and when I came out this afternoon
I felt good about the future of this country
'Cause there is a future of it said an arithmetic watching herbie rides again
And all that laughter and that energy youth
Me and 500 kids, that came out and we put him to bed that night, I wrote this

I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there
I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town"
I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit
And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it"
He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down
This the first time you've come to our little town?
I said, "I think it is"
He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of that
Ragged old flag"

You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware
And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key set up watching it
Writing "Say Can You See"
It got a little rip in New Orleans, with Packingham and Jackson
Tugging at its seams
It almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag
But she waved on though
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
Got cut again at Shiloh Hill
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg
And the south wind blew hard on that
Ragged old flag

On Flanders Field in World War I
She took a bad hole from a Bertha Gun
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp, and low by the time that went through
She was in Korea, Vietnam
She went where she's been sent by her Uncle Sam
She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
We were backward wavin' our back here at home
In her own good land here she's been abused
She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused
Not the very government for which she stands
Has scandalized throughout out the land
And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' color thin
But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And she can take a whole lot more

So we raise her up every morning
And we bring her down slowly every night
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right
On second thought
I guess I do like to brag
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that
Ragged old flag

(Thank you)