John Prine and the Flag

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore
by John Prine

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:



Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."

...before this other song starts to ring true:

"Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.

Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm...."

(c) John Prine

again.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

The first song I ever heard by him was Flag Decal. I just bought tickets for his concert in DC in April Hoping he will sing that old favorite and well as Sam Stone.

I saw him live at the Kent State Folk Festival in '99, he was great.

one of the best lyricists out there.

Ive always liked Angel From Montgomery:

am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were thunder, lightning were desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo.
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

When I was a young girl, I had me a cowboy
He weren't much to look at, just a free rambling man.
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo.
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person go work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say?

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo.
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo.
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

Unwed Fathers is pretty good too.

n an Appalachian, Greyhound station 
She sits there waiting, in a family way
"Goodbye brother, Tell Mom I love her
Tell all the others, I'll write someday"



Chorus:
From an teenage lover, to an unwed mother
Kept undercover, like some bad dream 
While unwed fathers, they can't be bothered
They run like water, through a mountain stream

In a cold and gray town, a nurse say's "Lay down"
'This ain't no playground, and this ain't home'
Someone's children, out having children 
In a gray stone building, all alone
 
On somewhere else bound, Smokey Mountain Greyhound 
She bows her head down, hummin' lullabies
'Your daddy never, meant to hurt you ever' 
'He just don't live here, but you've got his eyes'

Repeat Chorus:

Well, they run like water,
Through a mountain stream

Saw him playing once, about 30 years ago; can't remember where, but I was blown away with his lyrical eloquence.

A Prine-inspired Texas singer/songwriter and baladeer. His lyrics are some of the most politically charged out there today

Cary Swinney - The Bike Ride.mp3

The Bike Ride

I took my bike out for a ride
on the lower southeast side

Where a young man should not ride
or come 'a goin'

The bluebonnets were in bloom
on a Texas afternoon

A mockingbird sang out a tune
for those who'll listen

People sleepin' in the streets of downtown Dallas
amidst the sound of Sunday's church bell afternoon

And I wonder sometimes, when they might come to
their minds

and a revolution shall ensue

I'm bettin' that a bloody revolution shall ensue

The propaganda just appears
in some TV ad for beer

But it does not show the fear
that we are hiding

Another touchdown from a run
another helmet comes undone

To show the world our toothless gums
and two gold earrings

Was nothing truly learned from Martin Luther King?
I guess all that civil rights stuff was a dream

Now our new prisons grow more full with angry citizens
and the rest of us are numbers in the game
I guess the rest of us are numbers in the game

It's so hard to define,

what is yours and what is mine
for with these nationalistic minds
we're surely crippled

We're spoon-fed through our TVs,
where our so-called enemies
are pointed out to you and me
like answered riddles

Is it no mystery to anyone that they're lying?
Even the old men down at the pool hall say that's true

And I wonder sometimes, when they might come to
their minds
and a revolution shall ensue
I'm bettin' that a bloody revolution shall I ensue