Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)

Album: One World (1986)
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  • I am the son of a grassland farmer
    Western Oklahoma nineteen forty three
    I always felt grateful to live in the land of the free
    I gave up my father to South Korea
    The mind of my brother to Vietnam
    Now there's a banker who says I must give up my land
    There are four generations of blood in this topsoil
    Four generations of love on this farm
    Before I give up I would gladly give up my right arm

    What are we making weapons for
    Why keep on feeding the war machine
    We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
    Take it away from the hands of the poor
    Tell me, what are we making weapons for

    I had a son and my son was a soldier
    He was so like my father, he was so much like me
    To be a good comrade was the best that he dreamed he could be
    He gave up his future to revolution
    His life to a battle that just can't be won
    For this is not living, to live at the point of a gun
    I remember the nine hundred days of Leningrad
    The sound of the dying, the cut of the cold
    I remember the moments I prayed I would never grow old

    What are we making weapons for
    Why keep on feeding the war machine
    We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
    Take it away from the hands of the poor
    Tell me, what are we making weapons for

    For the first time in my life I feel like a prisoner
    A slave to the ways of the powers that be
    And I fear for my children, as I fear for the for the future I see
    Tell me how can it be we're still fighting each other
    What does it take for a people to learn
    If our song is not sung as a chorus, we surely will burn

    What are we making weapons for
    Why keep on feeding the war machine
    We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
    Take it away from the hands of the poor
    Tell me, what are we making weapons for

    Have we forgotten
    All the lives that were given
    All the vows that were taken
    Saying never again
    Now for the first time
    This could be the last time
    If peace is our vision
    Let us begin

    Have we forgotten
    All the lives that were given
    All the vows that were taken
    Saying never again, never again
    Now for the first time
    This could be the last time
    If peace is our vision
    Let us begin, let us begin Writer/s: JOHN DENVER
    Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 30, 1986, Variety magazine reported that RCA had dropped John Denver from its roster after the release of his single, "Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)"...
    The Variety article stated that the song upset the record company's new owner, General Electric, one of the largest defense contractors in the US...
    "Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)" was track five on side one from his nineteenth studio album, 'One World'...
    John Denver, born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., passed away at the young age of 53 on October 12th, 1997 (plane crash}...
    May he R.I.P.
  • James from Minna, NigeriaA man of love peace and friendship....what are we really making weapons for?
  • Simone from Bellaire, MiHe was such a pure man. Able to feel so much and write it into beautiful words. I wish I had know him, but he lives on through his songs.
  • Bill from Queens, NySo much killing and hatred on tiny planet in an infinite universe. Why?
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