Lyrics of Checkered Past
Poignant, playful and sweetly subversive with warm harmonies - acoustic music that zings!

"Ball and Musket"

words and music by Kerry Stanley ©2004

If you want to get to Heaven on that some glad morning day

Then you better work for Justice while you’re down here in the clay

‘Cause the Prince of Peace is puzzled by this war in Allah’s name

Whether Christian, Jew, or Muslim it’s still killing just the same

Chorus:

Come down from the mountain, and roll across the plain

Blackened by the prairie fire, redeemed by the rain

Don’t tell the dead and wounded that their suffering is in vain

Is the truth still marching on?

Keep your lamp trimmed and burning, keep your hand on the plow

With your ball and your musket ready then ready now

God bless the men and women who bear arms and serve us well

God damn their false commander who sent them straight to hell

Chorus

Did we really think they’d greet us with their arms all open wide?

Just because we caught Saddam doesn’t mean we’re on their side

And when Christian men with rifles break down Muslim women’s doors

You’re recruiting for Al-Qaida, you’re starting the next war

Chorus

What’s done is done is over; where do we go from here?

Can all the children of the Book live in peace and without fear?

Or will we go on being foolish, invading foreign lands

To add the lessons of Iraq to those of Vietnam

Chorus (2x)