I recall writing this song in a sudden flow of lyrics. This song must have been written around 1973 when I first started writing lyrics to three chord folk ballads. The ideas seem relevant to the deliberately confusing and manipulative contexts of today. Vic
Locked on the Labels
By Vic Sadot
The fields are afire! The clouds are ablaze!
With colors full-flowing through the key-hole I gaze
I sing for the sunset, the death of the day
When truth is held trouble to seek and to say
And the door is locked on the labels we use
I’m bored with appealing to minds on the shelf
I know that I’m stealing this time from myself
There’s pine in the forest. There’s moss on the stone.
I could be alone in some zone of my own
But the door is locked on the labels we use
A child at the crossroads of heaven and hell
My finger I ran up that crack in the bell
For I was but nine when I touched Liberty
And the hypocrite’s “reverence” I barely could see
And the door was locked on the labels we use
The will of our ancestor’s urging us on
The right to unite is suddenly gone
The right to rebellion is branded blood red
And punishment’s good if it’s legally led
And the door is locked on the labels we use
Preachers pretending they found the last truth
Holding up progress, confusing the youth
Confusing the parents and wasting their bread
Claiming they’re saving the damned and the dead
And the door is locked on the labels we use
My lyric can’t capture that sparkle I see
In the eyes of the children depending on me
I question my senses. My sanity too!
My answer commences. I mention my view.
But the door is locked on the labels we use
Your song is too long! Can’t you say it in brief.
We don’t have the time to indulge your belief.
You sound like a “radical”… Bet he’s a Jew…
“The country’s infested with ‘commies’ like you!”
And the door is locked on the labels we use
Instrumental
It’s very efficient. You don’t have to think.
Dismiss the whole problem… Paint dissent pink!
Still one definition’s consistently true
And that definition of all that you do
And that “you” is locked on the labels we use
My lyric can’t capture that sparkle I see
In the eyes of the adults of humanity
I question my senses. Your sanity too!
In the eyes of the children depending on you
And the door is locked on the labels we use
We’re millions of years in the making it seems
Bestial priorities breaking our dreams
Crucify children, our future, we’re told
By routine revisions of “Wounded Knee” cold
And the door is locked on the labels we use
We call this “intelligence”; knowing it’s not!
We’re risking the only survival we’ve got
We surely keep living in life we instill
The new day is flowing from deeds we fulfill
And the door is locked on the labels we use
The system grows savage; We don’t understand.
But “greed is success” is lore of the land
Now mourn for the people’s corruption my friends
Cause we’ve got the means to get the good ends
But the door is locked on the values we choose
I’m partly beheaded by the guillotine view
I’m already wedded to billions of you
I know that I’m stealing this time from your self
And why should you listen to a self like your self
When the time is life much too precious to lose
The fields are afire! The clouds are ablaze!
With colors full-flowing through the key-hole I gaze
I sing for the sunrise, the dawn of the day!
When truth is held precious to seek and to say
And the key is each one who’s willing to choose!
