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granddad - tom heany lyrics

one winter my granddad moved in with us
i guess he was in between jails
as old as the bank in the middle of town, and
soft as a sack of nails
he’d sit and drink beer in the living room
rant about taxes and war
he’d curse and he’d yell and he’d drink and complain
and pound his cane on the floor
then he’d stop and say “god bless america,”
then he’d drink and he’d yell some more

he ground us all down by memorial day
when mama made dad throw him out
i asked, as he packed up his duffle bag
what all of the noise was about
he gathered himself for a minute
as perry mason might do
he said “how many people are there in this world
who would give up their lives for you?”
i thought as hard as a 10 year old can
but i only came up with two

somehow he got us an automobile
and we drove through the maryland sun
we p-ssed through bethesda at twelve fifteen
and crossed the potomac at one
we ended our journey at arlington
where robert e lee used to stand
and the national graveyard is up on a hill
watching over george washington’s land
i’d never seen so many tombstones
so i took my grandfather’s hand

we saw soldiers with guns and one with a bugle
and a family lost in pain
a folded flag in a young woman’s arms –
you could tell she would never be the same
granddad said, “there are 400,000 here, row after row after row
each of them willing to die for a 10 year old boy they will never even know
he said, “war is the stupidest thing in the world and it
sometimes has to be done
when all the bodies come home at the end
you can’t always tell who’s won
you asked about all of the yelling
you’re wondering about all the beer
i’m nearing the end of a long hard life
and my friends are all in here.”

he climbed to the seat of a little stone bench
and he smoothed his ragged gray hair
he turned to his brothers and sisters in arms
like he had invited them there
then he gathered himself, and opened his lungs
and blistered the sanctified air

i won’t pay for the president’s limousine
or the godd-mn vice president’s beer
when i pay my taxes on april 15
every godd-mn penny goes here
you could boil the congress in oil
and the whole blessed country would cheer
i do what i want with the taxes i pay
but all of my money goes here

that was a really long time ago
the old guy eventually p-ssed
he’s there with his buddies in arlington
thank god he’s quiet at last
i visit him every memorial day
and i take my whole family there
we gather ourselves by his tombstone
and look like a family in prayer
then like one legged soldiers with beer in our bellies
we blister the sanctified air

i won’t pay for the president’s limousine
or the godd-mn vice president’s beer
when i pay my taxes on april 15
every godd-mn penny goes here
the democrats and the republicans
they lie to us year after year – i say
screw them all, down to the last sorry b-st-rd
ignorant self-absorbed criminal blowhards
life in a cesspool would be too d-mn good for them
but i’m going to stop now before i get angry
and pay my respects to the man and his comrades
with expletives, outrage and beer
i do what i want with the taxes i pay
and all of my money goes here
every sacred penny goes here
all of my money goes here

- tom heany lyrics

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