《There Was Only One Choice(Edited Version)》歌词

[00:00:00] There Was Only One Choice (只有一个选择) (Edited Version) - Harry Chapin

[00:00:08] There's a kid out on my corner hear him strumming like a fool

[00:00:13] Shivering in his dungarees but still he's going to school

[00:00:17] His cheeks are made of peach fuzz his hopes may be the same

[00:00:21] But he's signed up as a soldier out to play the music game

[00:00:26] There are fake patches on his jacket

[00:00:28] He's used bleach to fade his jeans

[00:00:30] With a brand new stay pressed shirt

[00:00:32] And some creased and wrinkled dreams

[00:00:34] His face a blemish garden but his eyes are virgin clear

[00:00:39] His voice is chicken little's but he's hearing paul revere

[00:00:44] When he catches himself giggling

[00:00:46] He forces up a sneer

[00:00:48] Though he'd rather have a milk shake

[00:00:50] He keeps forcing down the beer

[00:00:52] Just another folkie late in coming down the pike

[00:00:57] Riding his guitar he left kid brother with his bike

[00:01:03] And he's got guthrie running in his bones

[00:01:06] He's the hobo kid who's left his home

[00:01:08] And his beatles records and the rolling stones

[00:01:10] This boy is staying acoustic

[00:01:12] There's seeger singing in his heart

[00:01:14] He hopes his songs will somehow start

[00:01:16] To heal the cracks that split apart

[00:01:19] America gone plastic

[00:01:22] And now there's dylan dripping from his mouth

[00:01:26] He's hitching himself way down south

[00:01:29] To learn a little black and blues

[00:01:32] From old street men who paid their dues

[00:01:35] Cause they knew they had nothing to lose

[00:01:37] They knew it so they just got to it

[00:01:43] With cracked old gibsons and red clay shoes

[00:01:45] Playing 1 4 5 chords like good news

[00:01:49] And cursed with skin that calls for blood

[00:01:52] They put their face and feet in mud

[00:01:55] But oh they learned the music from way down there

[00:01:59] The real ones learn it somewhere

[00:02:03] Strum your guitar sing it kid

[00:02:08] Just write about your feelings not the things you never did

[00:02:13] Inexperience it once had cursed me

[00:02:17] But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty

[00:02:24] Hey kid you know you can hear your footsteps

[00:02:30] As you're kicking up the dust

[00:02:32] And the rustling in the shadows tells you secrets you can trust

[00:02:36] The capturing of whispers is the way to write a song

[00:02:40] It's when you get to microphones the music can go wrong

[00:02:51] You can't see the audience with spotlights in your eyes

[00:02:55] Your feet can't feel the highway from where the lear jet flies

[00:02:59] When you glide in silent splendor in your padded limousines

[00:03:03] Only you are crying there behind the silver screen

[00:03:10] Now you battle dragons but they'll all turn into frogs

[00:03:14] When you grab the wheel of fortune you get caught up in the cog

[00:03:26] First your art turns into craft then the yahoos start to laugh

[00:03:30] Then you'll hear the jackals howl cause they love to watch the fall

[00:03:34] They're the lost ones out there feeding

[00:03:36] On the wounded and the bleeding

[00:03:39] They always are the first to see the cracks upon the walls

[00:03:54] When I started this song I was still thirty-three

[00:03:59] The age that mozart died and sweet jesus was set free

[00:04:03] Keats and shelley too soon finished charley parker would be

[00:04:07] And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me

[00:04:14] Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four

[00:04:18] Mere mortal not immortal not star-crossed anymore

[00:04:22] I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore

[00:04:27] A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar

[00:04:34] And I can't help being frightened on these midnight afternoons

[00:04:38] When I ask the loaded questions

[00:04:40] Why does winter come so soon

[00:04:43] And where are all the golden girls that I was singing for

[00:04:47] The daybreak chorus of my dreams serenades no more

[00:04:54] Yeah the minute man is going soft the mirror's on the shelf

[00:04:58] Only when the truth's up there can you fool yourself

[00:05:02] I am the aged jester who won't gracefully retire

[00:05:05] A clumsy clown without a net caught staggering on the high wire

[00:05:10] Yesterday's a collar that has settled round my waist

[00:05:13] Today keeps slipping by me it leaves no aftertaste

[00:05:17] Tomorrow is a daydream the future's never true

[00:05:21] Am I just a fading fire or a breeze passing through

[00:05:38] Hello my country I once came to tell everyone your story

[00:05:50] Your passion was my poetry

[00:05:57] And your past my most potent glory

[00:06:06] Your promise was my prayer

[00:06:14] Your hypocrisy my nightmare

[00:06:20] And your problems fill my present

[00:06:29] Are we both going somewhere

[00:06:45] Step right up young lady

[00:06:47] Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile

[00:06:51] And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortise smile

[00:06:55] With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint

[00:07:00] While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint

[00:07:08] And while blood's the only language

[00:07:10] That your deaf old ears can hear

[00:07:13] And still you will not answer with that message coming clear

[00:07:17] Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream

[00:07:21] And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream

[00:07:28] Oh b u y centennial

[00:07:31] Sell em pre-canned laughter

[00:07:33] America perennial

[00:07:35] Sing happy ever after

[00:07:46] There's a dance band on the titanic

[00:07:50] Singing nearer my god to thee

[00:07:54] And the iceberg's on the starboard bow

[00:07:59] Won't you dance with me

[00:08:10] Yes I read it in the new york times

[00:08:11] That was on the stands today

[00:08:13] It said that dreams were out of fashion

[00:08:16] We'll hear no more empty promises

[00:08:18] There'll be no more wasted passions

[00:08:20] To clutter up our play

[00:08:23] It really was a good sign

[00:08:25] The words went on to say

[00:08:27] It shows that we are growing up

[00:08:28] In oh so many healthy ways

[00:08:31] And I told myself this is exactly where I'm at

[00:08:36] But I don't much like thinking about that

[00:08:49] Harry are you really so naive

[00:08:52] You can honestly believe

[00:08:54] That the country's getting better

[00:08:57] When all you do is let her alone

[00:09:01] Harry can you really be surprised

[00:09:05] When it's there before your eyes

[00:09:07] When you hold the knife that carves her

[00:09:09] You live the life that starves her to the bone

[00:09:15] Good dreams don't come cheap

[00:09:19] You've got to pay for them

[00:09:23] If you just dream when you're asleep

[00:09:27] There is no way for them to come alive to survive

[00:09:47] It's not enough to listen it's not enough to see

[00:09:51] When the hurricane is coming on it's not enough to flee

[00:09:55] It's not enough to be in love we hide behind that word

[00:09:59] It's not enough to be alive when your future's been deferred

[00:10:11] What I've run through my body what I've run through my mind

[00:10:15] My breath's the only rhythm and the tempo is my time

[00:10:19] My enemy is hopelessness my ally honest doubt

[00:10:23] The answer is a question that I never will find out

[00:10:30] Is music propaganda should I boogie rock and roll

[00:10:34] Or just an early warning system hitched up to my soul

[00:10:38] Am I observer or participant or huckster of belief

[00:10:42] Making too much of a life so mercifully brief

[00:11:04] So I stride down sunny streets and the band plays back my song

[00:11:10] They're applauding at my shadow long after I am gone

[00:11:14] Should I hold this wistful notion that the journey is worthwhile

[00:11:19] Or tiptoe cross the chasm with a song and a smile

[00:11:28] Well I got up this morning I don't need to know no more

[00:11:32] It evaporated nightmares that had boiled the night before

[00:11:37] With every new day's dawning my kid climbs in my bed

[00:11:41] And tells the cynics of the board room your language is dead

[00:11:50] And as I wander with my music through the jungles of despair

[00:11:55] My kid will learn guitar and find his street corner somewhere

[00:11:59] There he'll make the silence listen to the dream behind the voice

[00:12:04] And show his minstrel hamlet daddy that there only was one choice

[00:12:13] Strum your guitar sing it kid

[00:12:17] Just write about your feelings not the things you never did

[00:12:24] Inexperience it once had cursed me

[00:12:29] But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty hey kid

[00:12:41] Strum your guitar sing it kid

[00:12:46] Just write about your feelings not the things you never did

[00:12:54] Dance band on the titanic

[00:12:58] Singing nearer my god to thee

[00:13:03] The iceberg's on the starboard bow

[00:13:08] Won't you dance with me

[00:13:12] The dance band on the titanic

[00:13:16] Singing nearer my god to thee

[00:13:20] And the iceberg's on the starboard bow

[00:13:25] Won't you dance with me

[00:13:29] Yeah the dance band on the titanic

[00:13:33] Singing nearer my god to thee

[00:13:38] And the iceberg's on the starboard bow

[00:13:42] Won't you dance with me

[00:13:45] Come on

[00:13:46] Yeah the dance band on the titanic

[00:13:50] Singing nearer my god to thee