Tom Paxton – A Rumblin In The Land (Guitar Acoustic)

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I can hear the rumblin’ river as it rushes underground

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I can hear the breakers crashing; I can hear the breakers pound

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I can stand beneath the waterfall and shout with all my might

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I can hear a thousand voices making ready for a fight

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I can ride through Colorado in a semi-trailer cab

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I can hang around the truck stops and hear them joke and gab

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I can hear them tellin’ stories of the lives that they must lead

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As they wonder how they’ll make it with so many mouths to feed

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I can see the little hobo as he shuffles down the street

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I can hear him in the diner as he bums a bite to eat

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For ten years he stoked the furnace ‘til the factory whistle blowed

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Got laid off by automation boys and it put him on the road

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And I met another fellow as I wandered all about

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He was mining down at Heyser till his union sold him out

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Yes, they worked him in the coalmines till his back and arms were sore

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Then they put him on the blacklist boys and he can’t go back no more

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I can see the sharecrop farmer as he wipes his sweaty brow

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He can see the crop is failing but it ain’t his anyhow

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I can see the dust cloud swirling on his played-out farmin' land

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See him hunker down and let it trickle through his hand

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I met a fine young negro lad about seventeen or so

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He didn’t like those southern jails but he felt that he had to go

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Saying, “Mom and dad were Negros and my son will be one too

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And I guess it’s up to me because we’ve given up on you”

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And as I passed an air force base a young man I did meet

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With his shiny wings of silver and his uniform so neat

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Saying, “I don’t wanna bomb them sir; it fills me with dismay

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But orders they are orders and you know I must obey”

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Well I’ve been walking through this country and my eyes are open wide

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And the things I’ve seen and heard you couldn’t imagine if you tried

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I’ve been listening to some people and one thing I understand

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A great flood is a-rising fast and there’s a rumblin’ in the land