I Remember (Live at Cbgb’s 1983)

I remember! (Crowd cheering)
Yeah I remember

I remember believing what they told me in school;
"Pledge your allegiance to the Red, White, and Blue
Don't expect your country to do nothing 'cause of you"
That the police were really good guys
That the Mafia was really something out of the thirties
That the mafia doesn't exist
That the U.S. Army was really the good guys

But then we found out that was lies!
Macho brutality, the racism, the cultural perspective
The intellectual mind of the American people, the Western European culture
Saying that we are Gods, but we proved that point in slavery
We use you, and abuse you, and throw you away!
I remember believing that this country was great
And now I see it was lies!

I remember when I first went to school
They said
Don't be a joker, don't be a fool
Pledge your allegiance to the red, white, and blue
Don't expect your country to do nothin' for you
They said your forefathers loved you
But I only had one
And I watched him die in the heat of the sun
Suckin' on the barrel of a policeman's gun
There was nothin' I could do but get away

In the U.S.A. you gotta take your chances
If you plan on stayin' free
They say this is the land of the living
But they're trying to make a dead man out of me

I remember when I first hit the road
How a man's supposed to be about as free as a bird
My brother's in prison, my father's dead
Me, I'm tired of living with a price on my head
I wonder if there's a place to be
In the whole wide country for a fella like me
Name's in the paper, face on T.V
Nothin' I can do but get away

In the U.S.A. you gotta take your chances
If you plan on stayin' free
They call this the land of the living
But they're trying to make a dead man out of me

I remember when I first hit the road
How a man's supposed to be about as free as a bird
My brother's in prison, my father's dead
Me, I'm tired of living with a price on my head
I wonder if there's a place to be
In the whole wide country for a fella like me
Name's in the paper, face on T.V
Nothin' I can do but get away

In the U.S.A. you gotta take your chances
If you plan on stayin' free
They call this the land of the living
But they're trying to make a dead man out of me

In the U.S.A. you gotta take your chances
If you plan on stayin' free
They call this the land of the living
But they're trying to make a dead man out of me