Just heard this and thought you might enjoy it
Track 4_0001.wmv - YouTube
Nobody yet seems to know who wrote and released it, but here are the lyrics as I hear them:
I fired the shot in Lexington that was heard around the world
And I was on the ramparts when the Stars & Stripes unfurled.
And in the fields where young America for freedom fought and fell,
I spit lead shot and black powder, fired 'nuff thought I'd surely melt.
When they cleared the ground where the redcoats turned and ran,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I stood with Andy Jackson in the war of 1812
Fought Regulars, Rifles and Light Dragoons and sent 'em all to hell
and at the Alamo while the strains of El Deguello filled the air
I was loaded, cocked and ready, towards to Santa Anna brought to bear.
Where Travis drew the line down in the sand,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I watched brother killing brother back in 1861
Through the blood and smoke of Gettysburg, Antietam and Bull Run.
And I rode with Hood and Franklin and with Sherman to the sea,
I claimed 600 thousand souls when Grant sat down with Lee
And for reasons I still can't understand,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Well, I put food on your table when there was nothing there to eat
I've stayed awake around the world so America could sleep.
And if someone wants to take me from my place in this great land
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I shipped out with Black Jack Pershing in 1917
With a million of my brothers packed in Springfield cosmoline.
Bore a bayonet through No-Man's land and the concertina wire
Through mustard gas, muddy trench and German mortar-fire.
Before the ticker-tape parades and marching bands,
They had to pry me from a cold dead hand.
Well, I gathered dust from the time the War To End All Wars was won,
'Til Pearl Harbor fell and Roosevelt declared in '41.
I parachuted through the endless flak and took the beach at Normandy
With the greatest generation this country's ever seen.
And on every piece of rock on the way to Japan
They had to pry me from a cold dead hand.
Spent some winters in Korea and some summers in Da Nang
And when the Cold War flared up high, I was putting out the flames.
Pulled some time down in the desert, took a thousand Afghan hills
While the politicians made the debt, the soldiers paid the bills.
Where they left their blood on that barren, ancient land
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Well, I put food on your table when there was nothing there to eat
I've stayed awake around the world so America could sleep.
And if someone wants to take me from my place in this great land
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Now I'm living in your closets and I'm hanging on your walls
I hunt squirrels in October and chase whitetails in the fall.
You've still got the right to own me and you'd best hold on to that,
Cos if they ever come and take me, you won't ever get me back
Freedom only lives where good men make a stand
So let 'em pry me from a cold, dead hand.
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Come and get me from a cold, dead hand.
__________________
Track 4_0001.wmv - YouTube
Nobody yet seems to know who wrote and released it, but here are the lyrics as I hear them:
I fired the shot in Lexington that was heard around the world
And I was on the ramparts when the Stars & Stripes unfurled.
And in the fields where young America for freedom fought and fell,
I spit lead shot and black powder, fired 'nuff thought I'd surely melt.
When they cleared the ground where the redcoats turned and ran,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I stood with Andy Jackson in the war of 1812
Fought Regulars, Rifles and Light Dragoons and sent 'em all to hell
and at the Alamo while the strains of El Deguello filled the air
I was loaded, cocked and ready, towards to Santa Anna brought to bear.
Where Travis drew the line down in the sand,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I watched brother killing brother back in 1861
Through the blood and smoke of Gettysburg, Antietam and Bull Run.
And I rode with Hood and Franklin and with Sherman to the sea,
I claimed 600 thousand souls when Grant sat down with Lee
And for reasons I still can't understand,
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Well, I put food on your table when there was nothing there to eat
I've stayed awake around the world so America could sleep.
And if someone wants to take me from my place in this great land
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
I shipped out with Black Jack Pershing in 1917
With a million of my brothers packed in Springfield cosmoline.
Bore a bayonet through No-Man's land and the concertina wire
Through mustard gas, muddy trench and German mortar-fire.
Before the ticker-tape parades and marching bands,
They had to pry me from a cold dead hand.
Well, I gathered dust from the time the War To End All Wars was won,
'Til Pearl Harbor fell and Roosevelt declared in '41.
I parachuted through the endless flak and took the beach at Normandy
With the greatest generation this country's ever seen.
And on every piece of rock on the way to Japan
They had to pry me from a cold dead hand.
Spent some winters in Korea and some summers in Da Nang
And when the Cold War flared up high, I was putting out the flames.
Pulled some time down in the desert, took a thousand Afghan hills
While the politicians made the debt, the soldiers paid the bills.
Where they left their blood on that barren, ancient land
They had to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Well, I put food on your table when there was nothing there to eat
I've stayed awake around the world so America could sleep.
And if someone wants to take me from my place in this great land
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Now I'm living in your closets and I'm hanging on your walls
I hunt squirrels in October and chase whitetails in the fall.
You've still got the right to own me and you'd best hold on to that,
Cos if they ever come and take me, you won't ever get me back
Freedom only lives where good men make a stand
So let 'em pry me from a cold, dead hand.
They'll have to pry me from a cold, dead hand.
Come and get me from a cold, dead hand.
__________________
