These Colors Don't Run The World
social commentary
Charts
Peak: #44 (150,308 songs currently in Acoustic)
Peak in sub-genre: #8 (13,362 songs currently in Folk)
Upload date
December 31, 2010
Meta data
MP3 3.5 MB, bitrate 128 kbps.
3:49 minutes
Words/music
Tom Neilson © Tom Neilson
Story behind the song
A take off on the saying "These Colors Don't Run." social commentary re US political/economic hegemony around the world.
Lyrics
There’s a drone in the air in Pakistan; Paramilitaries on Colombia Plan
Sam Sarawewa is hanging from a crane; Shell & Chevron in Ogoni domain
Rahm Emmanuel can bully junior senators To vote for war in Afghanistan
And Gates and Clinton can rattle the sabers For making combat with Iran
You can feel how you will every time you see Old glory unfurled,
But these colors don’t run the world
Obama says we’ve lost South America, But I can still find it on a map.
He keeps 50,000 mercenaries So we can occupy Iraq
You can blockade the people of Cuba; You can blockade information flow
We can bomb Vietnam to the stone age& torture in Guantanamo
You can feel how you will every time you see Old glory unfurled,
But these colors don’t run the world
You can build a wall on the border with Mexico; Build another in Palestine
Build a wall in the minds of our people, While the truth you undermine.
You can love your country or leave it; You can wave the red, white, and blue.
You can get child labor with Walmart & when you wear those Nike shoes
You can feel how you will every time you see Old glory unfurled,
But these colors don’t run the world
Contras kill civilian populations; Destroy their clinics and their schools
Their cropland and water systems Till we decide which Somoza rules
You can say they hate our freedoms, But look at the damage that we’ve done
To bring every precious metal and fossil fuel & their labor under our thumb.
You can feel how you will every time you see Old glory unfurled,
But these colors don’t run the world