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Tom Paine

by Fred Gardner

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lyrics

No future and no job
an unused education
37, two wives gone
a loose-ends situation
Tom Paine leaveth England
in '74
To see what the little town
of Philadelphia holds in store

Tries to start a school for women
but he can't get the backing
Rapping in the coffeehouse
Logically attacking
Empire in a little book
called plain Common Sense
which inspires the Declaration
of Independence

And when that gets accomplishment
no role for him is found
The big Whigs around Washington
don't want him around
railing against the churches
the gentry, the slavers
Ye Summer soldiers, sunshine
American flag-wavers!

So back to England
Paine goes and keeps fighting
he writes The Rights of Man
and gets charged with inciting
to mutiny and sedition
but on the night they come to bust him
William Blake has a premonition
Tom Paine has the sense to trust him

And South to Dover
he rides thanks to Blake
sets sail for France
maybe once more take
my part in a revolution
to make ours The Age of Reason
gets elected a representative
then arrested for Treason

Tom Paine in the Bastille
awaits the guillotine (13 months)
Benjamin Franklin
is obliged to intervene
wangles him a pardon
safe passage to the states
Where the revolution's just a fantasy
a bunch of signposts with dates

Taunted as an atheist
by the rich folks in New Rochelle
He dies alone and penniless
But unafraid of Hell
Some quote Christians unquote
deface his stone
protecting the property
value of their own

And someone tells Bill Blake
man your friend Paine has died
he covers his eyes
recollecting their ride
Says No Heaven Can Exist Above
to pacify that soul
But he shall live forever
in our visions of his goal

Tom Paine will live whenever
we start fighting for control

credits

released March 3, 2014
Words and music by Fred Gardner
produced bi Jason Berk

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Fred Gardner Alameda, California

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