I think this is probably the "King Henry" on Seeger's album. "Birmingham Sunday" would certainly be another dangerous song.
-Joe Offer-

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I MIND MY OWN BUSINESS
(Peter Seeger)

King Henry marched forth, a sword in his hand
Two thousand horsemen all at his command
In a fortnight, the rivers ran red through the land
The year, fifteen-hundred-and-twenty.

The year is now nineteen-sixty-five
It's easier far to stay alive
Just keep your mouth shut while the planes zoom and dive
Ten thousand miles over the ocean.

Simon was drafted in sixty-three
In sixty-four, sent over the sea
Last month this letter he sent to me
He said, you won't like what I'm saying.

He said, we've no friends here, no, hardly a one
We've got a few generals who just want our guns
But it'll take more than them if we're ever to win
Why, we'll have to flatten the country.

It's my own troops I have to watch out for, he said
I sleep with a pistol right under my head
He wrote this last month, last week he was dead
And Simon came home in a casket.

I mind my own business, I watch my TV
Complain about taxes, but pay anyway
In a civilized manner, my forefathers betray
Who long ago struggled for freedom.

But each day a new headline screams at my bluff
On TV some general says, "We must be tough"
In my dreams, I stare at this family I love
All gutted and spattered with napalm.

(Repeat first two verses)

Pete Seeger wrote these words to the same tune as "Birmingham Sunday," an old ballad melody (I Loved a Lass). The quote in the fifth verse is from an actual letter from a U. S. "advisor"to his wife a week before he was killed in Viet Nam.

Copyright 1965 by Peter Seeger

Source: Sing Out! Collected Reprints (Blue Volume)

@war @soldier @Vietnam
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