Song Description
A look at the promise that is America, the dreams that it fostered with its ideals, the ways in which the ideals were tarnished, and the need to get back on the right track.
| Song Length |
4:18 |
Genre |
Rock - Alternative, Rock - General |
| Tempo |
Slow (71 - 90) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Nonviolent, Composed |
Subject |
Politics, Liberal, Progressive |
| Similar Artists |
Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed |
Language |
English |
| Era |
2000 and later |
| |
Lyrics
There was an ideal they called America
Back in the enlightenment days
It was a beautiful dream of liberty and freedom
But it was stained in so many ways.
Stained with the blood of the native people
And the slaughter of their buffalo too.
Stained with the enslavement of the African and the Irish
And the rejection of the Chinese, Italian, and Jew.
Stained by the subjugation of women,
And child labor in the factories and mills.
The destruction of the forests
And the pollution of the rivers and the hills.
But still the ideal lingered
And some came to call it the American Dream
As its true heroes battled to preserve
Those values that were its cream.
And today that fight continues,
Against the forces of greed and division.
The deluded and the corrupt,
The spewers of scorn and derision.
God won't bless America,
Until the battle is won.
No God won't bless America
While evil is still being done.
Done to the poor and the hungry,
Done to the desperate refugee,
Evil done, to the innocent and the needy,
And to the earth, the sky, and the sea.
No God won't bless America,
Until its dream comes true.
Only then will He bless the red white and blue.
Yes only when America realizes its dream,
Will God bless the red white and blue.