Never a Choice

To the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps"

It was late '63

In the land of the free

And we all were feelin' okay.

At the top of the land

Was a well-meaning man

Whose initials were JFK.

Then we heard Cronkite

Tell us "Shots rang out,"

In the middle of old Dallas town.

We felt like the floor

Had revealed a trapdoor,

And the world turned upside down.

They wanted to make us think that it

Was the work of a lone crazy guy,

But then a most unlikely

Mobbed-up man

Made certain that he would die.

I could feel the freedom lost

But I didn't know who was boss,

Didn't know who should pay,

But I could see that we were stuck,

Completely out of luck:

Had to vote for LBJ.

Now there's never a choice,

Never a choice, mister,

To cast a ballot for.

Never a choice,

Nobody to like,

You just want to head for the door.

Then the clouds cleared away

And I could see that they

Had cleared the way for the war.

The baby-boomer sons

Were fitted for guns

For the bloodletting they had in store.

Then they said the Commies had attacked our ship,

And that was just what they were waiting for:

The press and the Congress all got in line

And LBJ had his war.

Now there's never a choice,

Never a choice, mister,

To cast a ballot for.

Never a choice,

Nobody to like,

You just want to head for the door.

David Martin

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