anywhere in america... hair trigger tempers flare...
anywhere in America... you can get caught in the cross-fire stare...
how in heaven do you stand a hope in hell...
f breaking this godless law-abiding spell?
it can turn on a dime... anytime... in America.
...
anywhere in America... haunts the ghost of a beautiful dream...
anywhere in America... you see it coming apart at the seams...
there's a lone gunman in the shadows; tremblin' with wicked rage...
stepping from the wings... suddenly he's center stage
he knows he's going to be on the late news and the front page
and he looks like you and me, and he could be...
anywhere in America.. tonight...
...
anywhere in America... you take your life into your own hands...
at the shopping mall, the public school hall... the corner porno stand...
(and these stories we've been told about 'the end of the world'; they're at hand
in an automatic assault scope sight...
I wouldn't want to be, among the 'fearful free' ...
... anywhere in America... tonight....
...well... this song is my response to the 'gun culture' south of the border, down Amerika way... the original line of 'lone gunman in the shadows' came to me one night in Dublin, many years ago... I was lying awake in a B&B, listening to the the sirens wail as the city quaked under threat of another bombing; but it was time spent in California one winter ('78?) that realy brought home the reality of a society inured and immersed in violence, and it certainly hasn't gotten any better in the intervening years; with 'mass shootings' having become commonplace. Far too many weapons, military grade instruments of 'mass destruction' sold with impunity... I fear it is too late for the U.S.A. to tun things around; particularly under current administration; and I fear what awaits Canada as the weapons seep across our all too porous border. love to all, d.