49 Bye-Byes/America's Children

Stephen Stills

Forty nine reasons all in a line
All of them good ones, all of them lies
Drifting with my lady, we're oldest of friends
Need a little work and there's fences to mend

Steady girl, she was my world
Till the drifter come, now she's gone
I let that man play his hand
I let them go, how was I to know
I'm down on my knees, nobody left to please

Now it's over, they left in the spring
Her and the drifter, lookin' for beautiful things

And I want you to clap your hands
Awwww Come on and clap your hands everybody
Yeah all right yeah all right yeah
And a little bit louder now
A little bit louder now
And a little bit louder now
Yes and a little bit louder now
Oh, you know there's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
Yes there's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to be ware
And we got to stop children, what's that sound
Look what's going down
Ahh look what's going down

All right
What a field day, what a heat
Must have been a thousand people standing in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Come on, mostly say "hurray for our side"
And we got to stop children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
All right, what's going down ah yes

Well it looks to me like there's a few politicians hanging around children
Purpertating some kind of myth on us all all right
Taking bout what a drag all the kids are yeah aahh
Cause they got the guts to get out in the strees and tell the truth every day aahh yes
Making it a little hot for them, you know all right
But you know that we're all just out there proving to
Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew and Richard Dailey and all them other,
well whatever you want to call them
That America is still the home of the brave oh yes it is
And you got to be brave children
How many is it that they shot down already?
Something like seventeen of us.
But you know we gotta do it
We gotta keep on keeping on
Because if we don't do it nobody else is gonna
But you know if we can't do it with a smile on our face
You know if we can't love in our hearts then children we ain't got no right to do it at all
Because it just means we ain't learned nothing yet
We're supposed to be some kind of different Ahhh
Whoa Whoa Whoa oh yes
And I don't know if I want white America to remember or to forget
That Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary
Dig it ohh Dig it ooh right on Dig it yeah

You know that paranoia it strikes deep
Into your life it's going to creep
And it starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line the man comes
He's going to shoot you down

We've got to stop hey now what's that sound
Yeah we've got to stop and what's that sound yes
We've got to stop hey children what's that sound
What's going down oh yeah