Dear sixtieschick,

"Mary, You Are my Friend"

Step down the air raid siren says,
Don't walk in the rain.
It's true they fought their battles,
Where the graveyards remain,
And now machine guns testify
That Hitler's back again,
Washington you know his footsteps,
What he's done is change his name,
And perhaps go more insane.

Mother Mary have forgiveness,
The Church has got you taking sides.
Your Son was killed for silver,
It's the same when soldiers die,
But I refuse to sell myself
Into illicit enterprise,
Genocidal Quisling governments
Sanction war with killer's pride'
But war's just murder undisguised.

Traitors govern us, they're inventing
Lies to hide their vicious smiles,
From Holy Mary representing
Every virgin with a child.

***************************************

I think I wrote that in '67 or '68. Not sure. It was a response to the continuing insanity of the Vietnam War, the NYC Cardinal (Spellman?) getting into it on the side of Washington, and the flow of garbage being fed to people in the news. The image of Mary was a powerful one for me. I was not religious in a formal sense--that is, I didn't go to church or have any involvement with one, but as twenty or twenty-one year old, I knew in my heart that things just weren't right. In retrospect (and that song has a really good melody BTW, pardon my immodesty), it was a search for something beyond the 'facts' per se, and a dip into the poetic world of image, archetype and symbol.

The song ended--on the record--with an explosion to symbolize a nuclear blast. It is one of four songs on that vinyl that I still like.

Don't mean to make this about me. Hope it's of help to you.

Bruce