abraham, martin and john

Lyrics

i am a backseat driver from america, they drive to the left on falls road, and the man at the wheels name is shamus, we pass a the child on a corner he knows, and shamus says "now what chance has that kid got", and i say from the back "i don't know", he says "there's barbed wire at all of these exits", there ain't no place in belfast for that kid to go, and it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life, it's a hard life wherever you go, and we poison our children with hatred, and the hard life is all that they know, at the dairyline in chicago, a fat man in front of me, he's calling black people trash to his children, and he's the only trash here i see, and i'm thinking this man wears a white hood, in the night when his children should sleep, but they'll slip to their windows and see him, they'll think that white hood's all they need, and it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life, it's a hard life wherever you go, and if we poison our children with hatred, then the hard life is all that they know, i was a child of the sixties, when dreams could be held through tears, with disney and cronkite and martin luther, and i belived, i believed, i believed, now i'm a backseat driver from america, and i'm not at the wheel of control, and i am guilty, i am worn, i am the root of all evil, and i can't drive on the left side of the road, and it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life, it's a hard life wherever you go, and if we poison our children with hatred, then the hard life is all that they'll know, and there ain't no place in this world for these kids to go, cause it's a hard life wherever you go, has anybody here seen my old friend abraham, can you tell me where he's gone?, he freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young, i just looked around and he's gone. has anybody here seen my old friend martin, can you tell me where he's gone?, he freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young, i just looked around and he's gone. has anybody here seen my old friend john, can you tell me where he's gone?, he freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young, i just looked around and he's gone. didn't you love the things they stood for?, didn't they try to find some good in you and me?, and we'll be free, someday soon it's gonna be one day, has anybody here seen my old friend bobby, can you tell me where he's gone?, i thought i saw him walkin' up over the hill, with abraham and martin and john.