I've never had much truck with kings
(Said old George Jones). For all my days
My lot's been cast 'mid common thngs,
My path has run by humble ways.
Tho' I have live my life in what
Men call 'The shadow of the throne,'
No king disturbed my peace one jot,
And I have left them well alone.
But I have heard men rave and rant
Of great injustice, wrongs and rights
And all that maudlin, modern cant
Of liberty and freedom's fights.
But peacefully I've gone my way
And sought content on this bright earth.
I've harked to all they've had to say,
And summed it up for all it's worth.
But foreign lands have crushed their kings,
And raised new flags of strange design;
Yet all the liberty it brings
Seems, somehow, not one half of mine
In all those lands in this dread hour
Warring ambitions rise supreme;
And, in his crazy lust for pow'r,
Brother slays brother - for a dream.
Some wise man, in some book I read
(Said old George Jones) the seer explains
All human plans must have a head;
And, if it falls, black chaos reigns.
And can one doubt? When, far and wide,
Not freedom's gain, but freedom's loss
Follows the fall, with fratricide
'Mid those who would supplant the Boss.