Ragman - David Indian

    concerning the destruction by firebomb
    in the pre-dawn hours of July 28. 1983.
    of the Klanwatch Project headquarters
    of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Montgomery, Alabama.

    got me a letter from Alabam'
    had another sighting of the old Ragman
    he torched some lawyers' offices
    one day before the dawn

    they'd been prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan
    but some gasoline and a crafty hand
    burned down their files and evidence
    to ashes

    it was a Ragman taking his time
    twist his tongue on the raggedy rhyme
    Ragman dancing on the wind
    to the beat of the times

    a note about Ragman.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center is a 13-year-old legal rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. Following the destruction of their office buiIding, in which no one was injured, they have undertaken the construction of a new headquarters building on a site one block away from where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began the Montgomery Bus Boycott (and two blocks from the Alabama State Capitol, where George Wallace swore to uphold segregation forever). The new and more secure buiIding will be finished early in 1985. 
    The SPLC does vital, pro-democractic work. They depend on private (tax- deductable) contributions to finance their legal efforts against various Klan groups around the country, as well as to pay for the cost of their new center.
    All contributions and messages of support (equally important!) should
    be addressed to:

    Mr. Morris Dees
    SPLC-Klanwatch Project
    1001 South Hull Street
    Montgomery, Alabama 36195

    Ragman laughing at the scene of the crime
    driving his cart and drinking his wine
    searching for something to plunder
    off the ravaged vine

    Ragman! Ragman!

    Ragman he been around before
    was a wallpaper hanger in '24
    and in '37. he and your Uncle Joe
    was very good friends

    Ragman he made it out alive
    surfaced in Nuremberg in '45
    picked his teeth while the cameras turned

    Ragman turned the Jews to snow
    froze the roses in the archipelago
    and he lords it over some boardroom today
    he's a very big C.E.O.

    Ragman! Ragman!

    Ragman's keeping the black man down
    from a one-flight walk-up in Capetown
    try to poison the soul of a people
    who still know how to sing

    changed his name to Mu'ammar
    won't be done til he's left a scar
    across the heart of Africa
    where the lakes of Paradise once lay

    Ragman! takes his time
    twist his tongue on the raggedy rhyme
    Ragman! dancing on the wind
    to the beat of the times

    Ragman! laughing at the scene of the crime
    driving his cart and drinking his wine
    searching for something to plunder
    off the ravaged vine

    Ragman! Ragman!

    the Ragman he never settle down
    drags his bones from town to town
    beats his horses to death
    with the burden of the way

    travel at night on the backroads best
    cast his shadow on the baby's breath
    rents himself a farm
    in the valley of the shadow

    the Ragman he never steal your soul
    give all his agents full control
    kick back in his boredom
    see how low it can go

    keeping himself to a low profile
    a hunter in the dark and all the while
    everybody's running, but I'm telling you
    love is his nemesis's name

    Ragman! Ragman!

    well, I got me a letter from Alabam'
    had another sighting of the old Ragman
    he torched some lawyer's offices
    one day before the dawn

    © 1983. 1984 by David Indian.

    Disk

    Marco Giunco
    Work Basket Music Words