Jackson Browne: "Lives In The Balance"

Prospect Park,
Brooklyn, New York
July 2009

i've been waiting for something to happen
for a week or a month or a year
with the blood in the ink of the headlines
and the sound of the crowd in my ear
you might ask what it takes to remember
when you know that youve seen it before
where a government lies to a people
and a country is drifting to war
there's a shadow on the faces
of the men who send the guns
to the wars that are fought in places
where their business interest runs

on the radio talk shows and the t.v.
you hear one thing again and again
how the U.S.A. stands for freedom
and we come to the aid of a friend
but who are the ones that we call our friends
these governments killing their own
or the people who finally can't take any more
so they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
there are lives in the balance
there are people under fire
there are children at the cannons
and there is blood on the wire

theres a shadow on the faces
of the men who fan the flames
of the wars that are fought in places
where we cant even say the names
they sell us the president the same way
they sell us our clothes and our cars
they sell us everything from youth to religion
the same time they sell us our wars
i want to know who the men in the shadows are
i want to hear somebody asking them why
they can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
but they're never the ones to fight or to die
and there are lives in the balance
there are people under fire
there are children at the cannons
and there is blood on the wire