We Can Run

Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Brent Mydland

We don't own this place though we act as if we did
It belongs to the children of our children's kids
The actual owners haven't even been born yet

But we never tend the garden and we rarely pay the rent
Most of it is broken and the rest of it is bent
Put it all on plastic and I wonder where we'll be when the bills hit

Chorus
We can run but we can't hide from it
Of all possible worlds we only got one, we gotta ride on it
Whatever we've done we'll never get far from what we leave behind
Baby we can run, run, run but we can't hide

Well I'm dumping my trash in your back yard
Making certain you don't notice really isn't so hard
You're so busy with your guns and all of your excuses to use them

Well it's oil for the rich and babies for the poor
We've got everyone believing that more is more
If a reckoning comes maybe we'll know what to do then

[chorus]

All these complications seem to leave no choice
I heard the tongues of billions speak with just one voice
Saying just leave all the rest to me, I need it worse than you, you see
Then I heard the sound of one child crying

Today I went out walking in the amber wind
There's a hole in the sky where the light pours in
I remember the days when I wasn't afraid of the sunshine

But now it beats down on the ashphalt land
Like hammering blow from God's left hand
What little still grows
Cringes in the shade till the night-time

[chorus]
Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     studio 1989 Built To Last
      2 Apr 1989 Download Series Vol 9
      9 Oct 1989 Warlocks Box
     19 Mar 1990 Spring 1990
     29 Mar 1990 Wake Up To Find Out (note 1)
      3 Apr 1990 Spring 1990 (The Other One)
     16 Jun 1990 View From The Vault III (video/DVD & CD soundtrack)
 
Other Recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
      2000 Dare To Dream Toni Brown

Notes
(1) also included as part of box set Spring 1990 (The Other One)


Further Information
For an online discussion of the lyrics to this song see the deadsongs.vue conference on The Well.
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For information on references in the lyrics see David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
For David Dodd's discussion of this song on dead.net see Greatest Stories Ever Told
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For details of every time played, see Grateful Sets
For sheet music, see:
          Built To Last Songbook (piano arrangment)

 


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