Basic Protest Song Songtext
von Harry Chapin

So you′re thirteen
And there's a silent scream out there and you can hear it
Here′s your basic protest song
Now you're sixteen
And there's a danger in the air and you can see it
Here′s your basic protest song
Turning twenty
And it′s around you everywhere and you can feel it
Here's your basic protest song
Now you′re thirty
And it's too late now to care and you can taste it
Here′s your basic protest song
Well, I just turned thirteen
Don't know what I want to be
I don′t have much experience
But I'll tell you what I see
When I hear the rockers singing
"Baby, baby, I love you"
It seems to me we all got so much loving left to do
And at sixteen I don't know too much


But I′ll tell you what I do know
If you do not give a damn, I′ll tell you where to go
There is something truly crazy with our patriotic song
When those who wave the flag
Rob the weak to give the strong
So you're sixteen
And there′s a silent scream out there and it's you screaming
Here′s your basic protest song
Now you're sixteen
And there′s a danger in the air and you can see it
Here's your basic protest song
Turning twenty
And it's around you everywhere and you can feel it
Here′s your basic protest song
Passing thirty
And it′s too late now to care and you can taste it
Here's your basic protest song
Ah, now that I am twenty, got my first full-time job
My boss, upstanding citizen, found legal ways to rob
They say forget what you believe, forget what you have seen
But I know I′ve lost the best of me when I forgot my dreams
I'm passing onto thirty, got two kids of my own
Got a wife, house, a car and dog, still I am alone
And I′m tired of all this selling 'cause it′s myself that I sell
I'm tired of all this buying 'cause I can′t buy it ourselves
I know none of us is perfect, I can see myself too well
If we can′t push for paradise, we're settling for hell
So you′re thirteen
And there's a silent scream out there and it′s you screaming
Here's your basic protest song
Now you′re sixteen
And there's a danger in the air and you can see it
Here's your basic protest song
Turning twenty
And it′s around you everywhere and you can feel it
Here′s your basic protest song
Well, it's thirty now
And it′s too late now to care and you can taste it
Here's your basic protest song