On November 3, 2018, on the occasion of the US midterm elections, Billy shared this acoustic gem. “Just vote,” he wrote. “Sing your song. Say your words. ‘Be the change’ and all that. It ain’t that hard.”
lyrics
Click the title to read the lyrics
He’s got rocks but no gold, a smile that’s lost its soul
He’s got crops that just won’t grow, he can’t make them
Then he screams at the field for the poison in his yield
They send dusters out there one after another
I’m afraid, son, that you couldn’t raise cain anywhere
It’s a painstaking blood and sweat affair
They’ll spit boulders in your eyes
Cut you down to half your size and leave your blind
So you can’t raise cain anywhere
He grew up in the yard among the violent and the scarred
With a picture of his mother that’s now faded
There’s a sheet in his cell, he can twist if no one tells
He’ll be gone by morning chow if no one’s listening
I’m afraid, son, that you couldn’t raise cain anywhere
It’s a painstaking blood and sweat affair
They’ll spit proverbs in your eyes
And cut you down to half your size and leave you blind
Until you can’t raise cain anywhere
It’s a chain on a fence they all claim is self-defense
Don’t you bring your dirty family onto this land
So she looks to the sky through the glass that shields her eyes
Close her fist up let’s the shards fall where they might
I’m afraid, dear, that you’re going to raise cain anyway
It’s a painstaking love and death affair
They’ll spit promise in your eyes
And cut you down to half your size and leave you blind
But you’re going to raise cain anyway
When they spit boulders and proverbs and promise in your eyes and leave you blind
I hope you raise cain everywhere
