Name: they're building a wall (live - the commons)
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Channel: david rovics
Description: Free MP3 download! Licensing options are available for this track. From Warsaw to the West Bank, the parallels are absolutely chilling. (Studio version: on 'Songs for Mahmud')

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From Warsaw to the West Bank, the parallels are absolutely chilling. (Studio version: on 'Songs for Mahmud')

politics marijuana cannabis antiwar political iraq media social struggle israel cuba pirates environment labor afghanistan empire imperialism capitalism terrorism activism bullying bullies ecoterrorism guerrilla gardening irish hunger strike oil leaks oil spills social change

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David Rovics

"If the great Phil Ochs were to rise from the dead today, he would probably be hailed as the new David Rovics." Andy Kershaw, BBC

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

Peak #126

Peak in subgenre #12

Author

david rovics

Rights

david rovics 2008

Uploaded

February 13, 2008

Track Files

MP3

MP3 3.1 MB • 320 kbps • 3:21

Story behind the song

From Warsaw to the West Bank, the parallels are absolutely chilling.

Lyrics

They're building a wall
A wall between friends
A wall that justifies
Any means for their ends
A wall between Semites
Rich and poor
Brothers and sisters
From not so long before
Many feet thick
And twenty feet high
No one can look through it
And into the eye
Of a person you might know
To whom you might confide
Now just a stranger
On the other side

They're building a wall
Between water and land
So we can eat fruit
And they can eat sand
A wall to make sure
That our orchards will grow
And our kids can get fat
And not need to know
Of the cities in ruins
And the children in fear
That your fathers and brothers
In tanks might be near
A wall to keep quiet
That which you fear most
So you don't have to listen
To your grandfather's ghost

They're building a wall
Between future and past
A wall to keep separate
The chambers of gas
From bulldozers, gunships
And the tears of a child
Dignity, love
And all honor defiled
To remove reality
From your facts on the ground
A wall to keep distant
The terrible sound
Of the houses that crumble
And the children that die
A wall to keep separate
The truth from the lie

They're building a wall
And at such a cost
Land, money and safety
And all the lives lost
A wall made of brick
But bricks can be broken
When the people of Zion
Have finally awoken
Anjd said no more walls
No more refugees
No more keeping people
Upon their knees
And then the history books
Will someday recall
Before apartheid was ended
They were building a wall

Created February, 2004
Copyright David Rovics 2004, all rights reserved