Afternoon Matinee: Protest - I Will Not Obey

Performed by Utah Phillips

The new ruling party is holding the aces

The rest of the cards are all missing faces

I'm sorry i can't know you today

What can one say?

I will not obey

Give us your sons and give us your daughters

No one is safe or immune from the slaughter

How indifference makes then rage

What can one say?

I will not obey

National guard or freedom fighters

All houses belong to cigarette lighters

But who hides in the smoke?

What can one say?

I will not obey

Better perhaps to perish outside

of the bunkers where our generals hide

I turn away and spit

What can one say?

I will not obey

Give us the minds of your children to learn

the substance of books we have not yet burned

But can they read the sky for rain?

What can one say?

I will not obey

Soon all tyrants will feel our impatience

We choose to create our own combinations

I was always willing to agree

What can one say?

I will not obey

The essence of contract is agreement

not coercion or obedience

and agreement is sacred

What can one say?

I will not obey 

There are so few wars of people's liberation

for the people have so seldom risen; only the armed faction listen,

The armed faction lies they recreate the state through their action

when the people rise it is not they, but the state, which dies

I sing this song for the prisoners' release 

Most of all now for the new state police

You see, the guns have changed hands - again what can one say? 

I will not obey

~ from Country Tabs ~