Back when songs on the radio could say something...
A while ago, when we had less grey hair, and some of us still had hair, an occasional song would become the ending theme of some movie or reach the Top 100, and get a decent amount of play on the radio and those funny-looking old machines called LP record players. For instance, the song "One Tin Soldier" by the Original Cast, and covered by Coven for the movie "Billy Jack" in 1971. It reached the number 26 position on Billboard's Hot 100. But who would write lyrics like these any later than 1974 or so?
"Listen,
people, to a story
That was
written long ago,
'bout a
kingdom on a mountain
And the valley
folks below.
On the
mountain was a treasure
Hidden deep
beneath a stone,
And the valley
people swore
They'd have it
for their very own!
"Go ahead and hate
your neighbor!
Go ahead and
cheat a friend!
Do it in the
name of heaven;
You can
justify it in the end!
There won't be
any trumpets blowing,
Come the
judgment day;
On the bloody
morning after,
One tin
soldier rides away.
"So the people
of the valley
Sent a message
up the hill,
Asking for the
buried treasure –
Tons of gold
for which they'd kill.
Came the
answer from the kingdom,
'With our
brothers we will share,
All the riches
of the mountain,
All the treasure buried there.'
"Now the valley cried with anger,
'Mount your
horses, draw your swords!'
And they
killed the mountain people,
So, they won
their just rewards!
Now they stood
before the treasure
On the
mountain dark and red,
Turned the
stone and looked beneath it:
'Peace on
earth,' was all it said.
"Go ahead and
hate your neighbor!
Go ahead and
cheat a friend!
Do it in the
name of heaven;
You can
justify it in the end.
There won't be
any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day;
On the bloody
morning after,
One tin
soldier rides away."
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