Pablo picks peppers in the hot summer breeze.
María’s inside on her hands and her knees.
Abuelita says, “That’s just the way that things are.
You make yourself crazy if you look off too far.”
Walking a hard road in rag-rubber shoes,
With little to hope for and nothing to lose,
María says, “Maybe we’re fools when we try;
But nothing’s more foolish than to let life pass by,
Just waiting to die.”
Hear that drum?
’Cause here we come,
Rising up to shut you down!
Playing too, too long
At the same old song,
Once you were the only game in town.
The deals were made
In sun and shade,
Where fortune follows false renown.
Now that day’s passed:
We’ve come at last,
Rising up to shut you down.
Gonna shut you down.
Harry used to work nights from seven ’til four.
The old man says they don’t need him anymore.
Some slave ’cross the border gets a tenth of his pay.
The rest lines the pockets of the old man in grey.
Joan and Harry’s children live with her mom and dad.
A bank’s the proud owner of the home that they had.
Joan’s pulling temps now; she swears they’ll prevail.
Harry just wishes he was too big to fail:
A great, old grey whale.
Hear that drum?
’Cause here we come,
Rising up to shut you down!
Playing too, too long
At the same old song,
Once you were the only game in town.
The deals were made
In sun and shade,
Where fortune follows false renown.
Now that day’s passed:
We’ve come at last,
Rising up to shut you down.
Gonna shut you down.
Once again the soldiers advance in our name.
The faces are different but their pain is the same.
If someone asks what this killing is for,
They’re branded a traitor to the new sacred war.
Not anymore!
Hear that drum?
’Cause here we come,
Rising up to shut you down!
Playing too, too long
At the same old song,
Once you were the only game in town.
The deals were made
In sun and shade,
Where fortune follows false renown.
Now that day’s passed:
We’ve come at last,
Rising up to shut you down.
Gonna shut you down.
Heed that drum,
’Cause here we come,
Rising up to shut you down!
See the lightning flash.
Hear the thunder crash.
You thought you were the only game in town.
Your secret’s known.
Your cover’s blown.
Your fortune is a false-faced clown.
But that’s OK:
We’re here to stay,
Rising up to shut you down.