《There Was Only One Choice(Edited Version)》歌词

歌曲： There Was Only One Choice(Edited Version)

所属专辑：The Gold Medal Collection

歌手： HARRY CHAPIN

时长： 14:01

播放 下载lrc歌词 下载纯文本歌词

There Was Only One Choice (只有一个选择) (Edited Version) - Harry Chapin[00:00:00]

There's a kid out on my corner hear him strumming like a fool[00:00:08]

Shivering in his dungarees but still he's going to school[00:00:13]

His cheeks are made of peach fuzz his hopes may be the same[00:00:17]

But he's signed up as a soldier out to play the music game[00:00:21]

There are fake patches on his jacket[00:00:26]

He's used bleach to fade his jeans[00:00:28]

With a brand new stay pressed shirt[00:00:30]

And some creased and wrinkled dreams[00:00:32]

His face a blemish garden but his eyes are virgin clear[00:00:34]

His voice is chicken little's but he's hearing paul revere[00:00:39]

When he catches himself giggling[00:00:44]

He forces up a sneer[00:00:46]

Though he'd rather have a milk shake[00:00:48]

He keeps forcing down the beer[00:00:50]

Just another folkie late in coming down the pike[00:00:52]

Riding his guitar he left kid brother with his bike[00:00:57]

And he's got guthrie running in his bones[00:01:03]

He's the hobo kid who's left his home[00:01:06]

And his beatles records and the rolling stones[00:01:08]

This boy is staying acoustic[00:01:10]

There's seeger singing in his heart[00:01:12]

He hopes his songs will somehow start[00:01:14]

To heal the cracks that split apart[00:01:16]

America gone plastic[00:01:19]

And now there's dylan dripping from his mouth[00:01:22]

He's hitching himself way down south[00:01:26]

To learn a little black and blues[00:01:29]

From old street men who paid their dues[00:01:32]

Cause they knew they had nothing to lose[00:01:35]

They knew it so they just got to it[00:01:37]

With cracked old gibsons and red clay shoes[00:01:43]

Playing 1 4 5 chords like good news[00:01:45]

And cursed with skin that calls for blood[00:01:49]

They put their face and feet in mud[00:01:52]

But oh they learned the music from way down there[00:01:55]

The real ones learn it somewhere[00:01:59]

Strum your guitar sing it kid[00:02:03]

Just write about your feelings not the things you never did[00:02:08]

Inexperience it once had cursed me[00:02:13]

But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty[00:02:17]

Hey kid you know you can hear your footsteps[00:02:24]

As you're kicking up the dust[00:02:30]

And the rustling in the shadows tells you secrets you can trust[00:02:32]

The capturing of whispers is the way to write a song[00:02:36]

It's when you get to microphones the music can go wrong[00:02:40]

You can't see the audience with spotlights in your eyes[00:02:51]

Your feet can't feel the highway from where the lear jet flies[00:02:55]

When you glide in silent splendor in your padded limousines[00:02:59]

Only you are crying there behind the silver screen[00:03:03]

Now you battle dragons but they'll all turn into frogs[00:03:10]

When you grab the wheel of fortune you get caught up in the cog[00:03:14]

First your art turns into craft then the yahoos start to laugh[00:03:26]

Then you'll hear the jackals howl cause they love to watch the fall[00:03:30]

They're the lost ones out there feeding[00:03:34]

On the wounded and the bleeding[00:03:36]

They always are the first to see the cracks upon the walls[00:03:39]

When I started this song I was still thirty-three[00:03:54]

The age that mozart died and sweet jesus was set free[00:03:59]

Keats and shelley too soon finished charley parker would be[00:04:03]

And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me[00:04:07]

Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four[00:04:14]

Mere mortal not immortal not star-crossed anymore[00:04:18]

I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore[00:04:22]

A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar[00:04:27]

And I can't help being frightened on these midnight afternoons[00:04:34]

When I ask the loaded questions[00:04:38]

Why does winter come so soon[00:04:40]

And where are all the golden girls that I was singing for[00:04:43]

The daybreak chorus of my dreams serenades no more[00:04:47]

Yeah the minute man is going soft the mirror's on the shelf[00:04:54]

Only when the truth's up there can you fool yourself[00:04:58]

I am the aged jester who won't gracefully retire[00:05:02]

A clumsy clown without a net caught staggering on the high wire[00:05:05]

Yesterday's a collar that has settled round my waist[00:05:10]

Today keeps slipping by me it leaves no aftertaste[00:05:13]

Tomorrow is a daydream the future's never true[00:05:17]

Am I just a fading fire or a breeze passing through[00:05:21]

Hello my country I once came to tell everyone your story[00:05:38]

Your passion was my poetry[00:05:50]

And your past my most potent glory[00:05:57]

Your promise was my prayer[00:06:06]

Your hypocrisy my nightmare[00:06:14]

And your problems fill my present[00:06:20]

Are we both going somewhere[00:06:29]

Step right up young lady[00:06:45]

Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile[00:06:47]

And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortise smile[00:06:51]

With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint[00:06:55]

While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint[00:07:00]

And while blood's the only language[00:07:08]

That your deaf old ears can hear[00:07:10]

And still you will not answer with that message coming clear[00:07:13]

Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream[00:07:17]

And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream[00:07:21]

Oh b u y centennial[00:07:28]

Sell em pre-canned laughter[00:07:31]

America perennial[00:07:33]

Sing happy ever after[00:07:35]

There's a dance band on the titanic[00:07:46]

Singing nearer my god to thee[00:07:50]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:07:54]

Won't you dance with me[00:07:59]

Yes I read it in the new york times[00:08:10]

That was on the stands today[00:08:11]

It said that dreams were out of fashion[00:08:13]

We'll hear no more empty promises[00:08:16]

There'll be no more wasted passions[00:08:18]

To clutter up our play[00:08:20]

It really was a good sign[00:08:23]

The words went on to say[00:08:25]

It shows that we are growing up[00:08:27]

In oh so many healthy ways[00:08:28]

And I told myself this is exactly where I'm at[00:08:31]

But I don't much like thinking about that[00:08:36]

Harry are you really so naive[00:08:49]

You can honestly believe[00:08:52]

That the country's getting better[00:08:54]

When all you do is let her alone[00:08:57]

Harry can you really be surprised[00:09:01]

When it's there before your eyes[00:09:05]

When you hold the knife that carves her[00:09:07]

You live the life that starves her to the bone[00:09:09]

Good dreams don't come cheap[00:09:15]

You've got to pay for them[00:09:19]

If you just dream when you're asleep[00:09:23]

There is no way for them to come alive to survive[00:09:27]

It's not enough to listen it's not enough to see[00:09:47]

When the hurricane is coming on it's not enough to flee[00:09:51]

It's not enough to be in love we hide behind that word[00:09:55]

It's not enough to be alive when your future's been deferred[00:09:59]

What I've run through my body what I've run through my mind[00:10:11]

My breath's the only rhythm and the tempo is my time[00:10:15]

My enemy is hopelessness my ally honest doubt[00:10:19]

The answer is a question that I never will find out[00:10:23]

Is music propaganda should I boogie rock and roll[00:10:30]

Or just an early warning system hitched up to my soul[00:10:34]

Am I observer or participant or huckster of belief[00:10:38]

Making too much of a life so mercifully brief[00:10:42]

So I stride down sunny streets and the band plays back my song[00:11:04]

They're applauding at my shadow long after I am gone[00:11:10]

Should I hold this wistful notion that the journey is worthwhile[00:11:14]

Or tiptoe cross the chasm with a song and a smile[00:11:19]

Well I got up this morning I don't need to know no more[00:11:28]

It evaporated nightmares that had boiled the night before[00:11:32]

With every new day's dawning my kid climbs in my bed[00:11:37]

And tells the cynics of the board room your language is dead[00:11:41]

And as I wander with my music through the jungles of despair[00:11:50]

My kid will learn guitar and find his street corner somewhere[00:11:55]

There he'll make the silence listen to the dream behind the voice[00:11:59]

And show his minstrel hamlet daddy that there only was one choice[00:12:04]

Strum your guitar sing it kid[00:12:13]

Just write about your feelings not the things you never did[00:12:17]

Inexperience it once had cursed me[00:12:24]

But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty hey kid[00:12:29]

Strum your guitar sing it kid[00:12:41]

Just write about your feelings not the things you never did[00:12:46]

Dance band on the titanic[00:12:54]

Singing nearer my god to thee[00:12:58]

The iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:03]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:08]

The dance band on the titanic[00:13:12]

Singing nearer my god to thee[00:13:16]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:20]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:25]

Yeah the dance band on the titanic[00:13:29]

Singing nearer my god to thee[00:13:33]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:38]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:42]

Come on[00:13:45]

Yeah the dance band on the titanic[00:13:46]

Singing nearer my god to thee[00:13:50]