Lyr Add: Say Can You See - Scott Cook

Subject: Lyr Add: Say Can You See - Scott Cook
From: GUEST,Saul T. Dawg
Date: 20 Apr 26 - 05:47 PM

Scott Cook 2020 – on Tangle of Souls CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFylM55u3ho
(Winner of 2020 UK Songwriting Contest, best Folk. The larger contest got over 10,000 entries from 84 countries!)

SAY CAN YOU SEE
(Scott Cook)

I love this country, I love the people and the land
But there's a lot of stuff happening that I can't understand.
We got billions for bailouts, we got trillions for wars
But it's hard for working people to make a living anymore.

Hear me out for a second, this ain't a partisan song.
It ain't about right and left. It's about right and wrong.
We're fighting over the scraps while a few are living like kings
'Cause screwing us over's a bipartisan thing.

        And it's working people who made this country great
        Not the greedy opportunists or the peddlers of hate
        And if a new day's coming, it's gotta come from you and me
           &nbs p;    Oh say, can you see? Oh say, can you see?

See, I got a neighbour, we don't always agree.
He's a bit of a redneck, according to a hippie like me.
But if you're in the ditch, he'll pull you out, I know he will.
And that's more than I can say for all those living high dickheads on the hill

He works hard for his family. He's got loyalty and pride.
The company took all he gave and then cast him aside
'Cause there's profit in poverty. Hell, there's profit in prisons
And they don't even pay taxes - they just buy politicians

        But it's working people who made this country great
        Not the greedy opportunists or the peddlers of hate
        And if a new day's coming, it's gotta come from you and me
           &nbs p;    Oh say, can you see? Oh say, can you see?

In New York Harbour there's a lady with a flame
Still calling in the huddled masses in Liberty's name
But there's fear on the airwaves and hatred wrapped in the flag
Turning strangers into enemies and our riches into rags

And a revolution to break the grip of greed
Don't need a strongman or a saviour, but I believe we're gonna need
Whatever magic this old world's got left to start
And all the ammunition in the chambers of our hearts

        It's working people who made this country great
        Not the greedy opportunists or the peddlers of hate
        And if a new day's coming, it's gotta come from you and me
        Oh say, can you see? Oh say, can you see?

---

Notes:
"Homage to John Lewis and other civil rights heroes, past and present. Victims of racial injustice are remembered including those killed in 1963 when the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. Four children were murdered (Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14 Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Addie Mae Collins, 14) in the blast, which demolished the church. Also remembered are the victims of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma Alabama, an event which Congressman Lewis experienced as a young man of 25, when he led 600 civil rights marchers over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 25, 1965.

The first event, which occurred on September 15, 1963, was the catalyst in the same year for two friends, both 18 years old, to pen the song "Price of Freedom" which is used in this homage."