Tim McMullen's Blood Red

Powerful, live performance of a song about illegal wars from Reagan to Bush

Blood Red

Blood Red—Cities' sinking sun
Blood Red—Beaches' blazing sand
Blood Red—The chance for life's own pleasure
Slipping through a dying child's hand

Blood Red—Dwellings of the village
Blood Red—Burning walls through which they search
Blood Red—The school-house and the nursery
Blood Red—The bombed out rubble of the church

Blood Red—Our money bought the bullets
Blood Red—Our leaders aimed the gun
Blood Red—Our silence pulled the trigger
Now, look at what we've won—
Take a look at what we've done!

Blood Red—Gunboats in the harbour
Blood Red—Helicopter sound
Blood Red—Flesh to flames ignited
Blood Red—The bursting bombs that break the ground

Blood Red—Inflammatory headlines
Blood Red—The TV nightly news
Blood Red—Montage of people dying
Between the ads for buying women's shoes
And chewing gum sold by patriotic yachting crews

Blood Red—Our money bought the bullets
Blood Red—Our silence dropped the bombs
Blood Red—Our teachers hide from history
Blood Red TV preachers read us psalms
Greedy TV preachers grease their palms

Blood Red—Harvest from the field
Blood Red—Groceries on our shelves
Blood Red—The decent rate of profit
Blood Red—The deadly lies we tell ourselves

Blood Red—Our money buys the bullets
Blood Red—Rocket stockpiles and poison gas
Blood Red—Button to blow the world away
Blood Red—Our silence helped these come to pass

Blood Red—Our money buys the bullets
Blood Red—Our leaders aim the gun
Blood Red—Our silence pulls the trigger
Now, look at what we've won—
Take a look at what we've done!




©1988 Tim McMullen All Rights Reserved

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tim
• McMullen
• anti-war
• protest
• topical
• acoustic
• folk
• guitar
• live
• Bush
• patriot
• war
• bomb
• military
• kiling
• guns
• bullets

[Harpan32]

"Our silence pulls the trigger". Simply great.

[TimMcMullen]

Thanks for the compliment. I deeply appreciate it. It is tragic how true this song remains after so long.

Tim

[identitytraveler]

profound my friend! I like the expression in the degree of strumming throughout the song -that alone tells the story

[TimMcMullen]

Thanks for your kind comment. Most of the time my playing is a rather limited imitation of variations that I saw and heard Ramblin' Jack Elliott play, but this song comes more from spending night after night at the Ash Grove or Golden Bear, front row center, watching Phil Ochs play his heart out. Guthrie and Leadbelly got me interested in music; then Dylan and the Beatles got me started playing. But Ochs was my first real idol. If you like this one, you might like my song "I'd Have to Be Dead."

[everall23]

I love this song now, and loved it the first time I heard it in your class in Junior Team! :) I always hoped I would be able to find this song in particular!

[Chilimanjare]

I'm amazed, in this song seems to be the whole dark side of the human history from the previous century to the current one, and also something very essential about the basic human nature. We are selfish, greedy, short-sighted, lazy and yes very weak beings.

[raymondcrooke]

Great song - it's all very true!

[bulbheadmyass]

Wow, this is an awesome song. Just as relevant now as when you first wrote it.

[dulcajack]

Hey Tim,

You can't beat a song that comes from the heart. I can tell this one does. Great Lyrics.

Thanks

Jack

[itsjustwolf]

woah, your pretty good! nice song...