《There Only Was One Choice(LP版)》歌词

歌曲： There Only Was One Choice(LP版)

所属专辑：Dance Band on the Titanic

歌手： HARRY CHAPIN

时长： 14:11

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There Was Only One Choice (只有一个选择) (LP版) - 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[00:00:38]

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[00:00:53]

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

And he's got Guthrie running in his bones[00:01:04]

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[00:01:15]

To heal the cracks that split apart[00:01:17]

America gone plastic[00:01:19]

And now there's Dylan dripping from his mouth[00:01:23]

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[00:01:36]

They knew it so they just got to it[00:01:38]

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

Playing 1 4 5 chords like good news[00:01:46]

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[00:01:56]

The real ones learn it somewhere[00:02:00]

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

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[00:02:31]

And the rustling in the shadows tells you secrets you can trust[00:02:33]

The capturing of whispers is the way to write a song[00:02:37]

It's when you get to microphones the music can go wrong[00:02:41]

You can't see the audience with spotlights in your eyes[00:02:52]

Your feet can't feel the highway from where the Lear jet flies[00:02:56]

When you glide in silent splendor in your padded limousines[00:03:00]

Only you are crying there behind the silver screen[00:03:04]

Now you battle dragons but they'll all turn into frogs[00:03:11]

When you grab the wheel of fortune you get caught up in the cog[00:03:15]

First your art turns into craft then the yahoos start to laugh[00:03:27]

Then you'll hear the jackals howl 'cause they love to watch the fall[00:03:31]

They're the lost ones out there feeding[00:03:35]

On the wounded and the bleeding[00:03:37]

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[00:03:55]

The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free[00:04:00]

Keats and Shelley too soon finished Charley Parker would be[00:04:03]

And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me[00:04:08]

Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four[00:04:15]

Mere mortal not immortal not star-crossed anymore[00:04:19]

I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore[00:04:23]

A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar[00:04:28]

And I can't help being frightened on these midnight afternoons[00:04:35]

When I ask the loaded questions[00:04:39]

Why does winter come so soon[00:04:41]

And where are all the golden girls that I was singing for[00:04:44]

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[00:04:55]

Only when the truth's up there can you fool yourself[00:04:59]

I am the aged jester who won't gracefully retire[00:05:03]

A clumsy clown without a net caught staggering on the high wire[00:05:07]

Yesterday's a collar that has settled round my waist[00:05:11]

Today keeps slipping by me it leaves no aftertaste[00:05:14]

Tomorrow is a daydream the future's never true[00:05:18]

Am I just a fading fire or a breeze passing through[00:05:22]

Hello my Country I once came to tell everyone your story[00:05:39]

Your passion was my poetry[00:05:51]

And your past my most potent glory[00:05:59]

Your promise was my prayer[00:06:08]

Your hypocrisy my nightmare[00:06:16]

And your problems fill my present[00:06:22]

Are we both going somewhere[00:06:31]

Step right up young lady[00:06:46]

Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile[00:06:48]

And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortise smile[00:06:53]

With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint[00:06:57]

While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint[00:07:02]

And while blood's the only language[00:07:10]

That your deaf old ears can hear[00:07:12]

And still you will not answer with that message coming clear[00:07:14]

Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream[00:07:18]

And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream[00:07:23]

Oh B U Y Centennial[00:07:30]

Sell 'em pre-canned laughter[00:07:32]

America Perennial[00:07:34]

Sing happy ever after[00:07:36]

There's a dance band on the Titanic[00:07:47]

Singing nearer my God to thee[00:07:52]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:07:56]

Won't you dance with me[00:08:01]

Yes I read it in the New York Times[00:08:12]

That was on the stands today[00:08:14]

It said that dreams were out of fashion[00:08:16]

We'll hear no more empty promises[00:08:18]

There'll be no more wasted passions[00:08:20]

To clutter up our play[00:08:22]

It really was a good sign[00:08:24]

The words went on to say[00:08:27]

It shows that we are growing up[00:08:29]

In oh so many healthy ways[00:08:31]

And I told myself this is exactly where I'm at[00:08:33]

But I don't much like thinking about that[00:08:38]

Harry are you really so naive[00:08:51]

You can honestly believe[00:08:54]

That the country's getting better[00:08:57]

When all you do is let her alone[00:08:59]

Harry can you really be surprised[00:09:03]

When it's there before your eyes[00:09:07]

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

You live the life that starves her to the bone[00:09:11]

Good dreams don't come cheap[00:09:17]

You've got to pay for them[00:09:21]

If you just dream when you're asleep[00:09:25]

There is no way for them to come alive to survive[00:09:29]

It's not enough to listen it's not enough to see[00:09:50]

When the hurricane is coming on it's not enough to flee[00:09:53]

It's not enough to be in love we hide behind that word[00:09:57]

It's not enough to be alive when your future's been deferred[00:10:01]

What I've run through my body what I've run through my mind[00:10:13]

My breath's the only rhythm and the tempo is my time[00:10:17]

My enemy is hopelessness my ally honest doubt[00:10:21]

The answer is a question that I never will find out[00:10:25]

Is music propaganda should I boogie rock and roll[00:10:33]

Or just an early warning system hitched up to my soul[00:10:37]

Am I observer or participant or huckster of belief[00:10:40]

Making too much of a life so mercifully brief[00:10:44]

So I stride down sunny streets and the band plays back my song[00:11:07]

They're applauding at my shadow long after I am gone[00:11:12]

Should I hold this wistful notion that the journey is worthwhile[00:11:17]

Or tiptoe cross the chasm with a song and a smile[00:11:22]

Well I got up this morning I don't need to know no more[00:11:31]

It evaporated nightmares that had boiled the night before[00:11:35]

With every new day's dawning my kid climbs in my bed[00:11:41]

And tells the cynics of the board room your language is dead[00:11:44]

And as I wander with my music through the jungles of despair[00:11:53]

My kid will learn guitar and find his street corner somewhere[00:11:58]

There he'll make the silence listen to the dream behind the voice[00:12:02]

And show his minstrel Hamlet daddy that there only was one choice[00:12:07]

Strum your guitar sing it kid[00:12:16]

Just write about your feelings not the things you never did[00:12:20]

Inexperience it once had cursed me[00:12:27]

But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty hey kid[00:12:32]

Strum your guitar sing it kid[00:12:44]

Just write about your feelings not the things you never did[00:12:49]

Dance band on the Titanic[00:12:58]

Singing nearer my God to thee[00:13:02]

The iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:06]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:11]

The dance band on the Titanic[00:13:15]

Singing nearer my God to thee[00:13:19]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:24]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:28]

Yeah the dance band on the Titanic[00:13:32]

Singing nearer my God to thee[00:13:36]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:41]

Won't you dance with me[00:13:45]

Come on[00:13:49]

Yeah the dance band on the Titanic[00:13:50]

Singing nearer my God to thee[00:13:53]

And the iceberg's on the starboard bow[00:13:58]