Locked on the Labels

What this episode covers

I recall writing this song in a sudden flow of lyrics. This song must have been written around 1973 when I first started writing lyrics to three chord folk ballads. The ideas seem relevant to the deliberately confusing and manipulative contexts of today. Vic Locked on the Labels By Vic Sadot The fields are afire! The clouds are ablaze! With colors full-flowing through the key-hole I gaze I sing for the sunset, the death of the day When truth is held trouble to seek and to say And the door is locked on the labels we use I’m bored with appealing to minds on the shelf I know that I’m stealing this time from myself There’s pine in the forest. There’s moss on the stone. I could be alone in some zone of my own But the door is locked on the labels we use A child at the crossroads of heaven and hell My finger I ran up that crack in the bell For I was but nine when I touched Liberty And the hypocrite’s “reverence” I barely could see And the door was locked on the labels we use The will of our ancestor’s urging us on The right to unite is suddenly gone The right to rebellion is branded blood red And punishment’s good if it’s legally led And the door is locked on the labels we use Preachers pretending they found the last truth Holding up progress, confusing the youth Confusing the parents and wasting their bread Claiming they’re saving the damned and the dead And the door is locked on the labels we use My lyric can’t capture that sparkle I see In the eyes of the children depending on me I question my senses. My sanity too! My answer commences. I mention my view. But the door is locked on the labels we use Your song is too long! Can’t you say it in brief. We don’t have the time to indulge your belief. You sound like a “radical”… Bet he’s a Jew… “The country’s infested with ‘commies’ like you!” And the door is locked on the labels we use Instrumental It’s very efficient. You don’t have to think. Dismiss the whole problem… Paint dissent pink! Still one definition’s consistently true And that definition of all that you do And that “you” is locked on the labels we use My lyric can’t capture that sparkle I see In the eyes of the adults of humanity I question my senses. Your sanity too! In the eyes of the children depending on you And the door is locked on the labels we use We’re millions of years in the making it seems Bestial priorities breaking our dreams Crucify children, our future, we’re told By routine revisions of “Wounded Knee” cold And the door is locked on the labels we use We call this “intelligence”; knowing it’s not! We’re risking the only survival we’ve got We surely keep living in life we instill The new day is flowing from deeds we fulfill And the door is locked on the labels we use The system grows savage; We don’t understand. But “greed is success” is lore of the land Now mourn for the people’s corruption my friends Cause we’ve got the means to get the good ends But the door is locked on the values we choose I’m partly beheaded by the guillotine view I’m already wedded to billions of you I know that I’m stealing this time from your self And why should you listen to a self like your self When the time is life much too precious to lose The fields are afire! The clouds are ablaze! With colors full-flowing through the key-hole I gaze I sing for the sunrise, the dawn of the day! When truth is held precious to seek and to say And the key is each one who’s willing to choose!

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