"The Message" lyrics - BELA FLECK

One day I'd like to be rich and famous
Maybe be funny like Andy and Amos
Be on TV, and sing like Stevie
And have a girl who'd never leave me

But I'd really like a place where there could be no war
A bright and shiny world where there ain't no poor
Where there's opportunity, peace and unity
Where people can be what they want to be

And where Apartheid can never happen again
Where people don't judge you by the color of your skin
Where I hold your hand, and you hold mine
Where a helpful hand is never hard to find

A place Where people care, where no one can bear
When someone's hungry with nothing there
Where the heart is never cold, the young are never needy,
The old are never poor, and the rich are never greedy

So bring the power to the people, the people to the power
'Cause now is the time, this is the hour
To stop thinkin about war, start thinkin 'bout peace
So on this life, we can get another lease

With a lesson to learn, a new direction to turn
So we can take it to the sky where we belong
'Cause for too long, we've been too wrong
Yeah we got the right notes but we play the wrong song

Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your mind
So we can move ahead, instead of behind
We got people selling drugs, people are dying,
Politicians talking, and you know they're lying

Taxes for the poor, none for the rich
People starving in America, now ain't that a bummer

And now my heats been turned off, from my job I been laid off, what am I gonna do,
Now is the shape I'm in because of my dark skin, now I know that can't be true
But since we're all down here together lets work to make it better do our best for what it's worth
But you know the rules are bent when you have to pay rent, just to live on earth
Talk about justice...

Now we got missles on the ground, lasers in space,
Underground shelters just in case
That something goes boom, certain doom 'cause in our hearts would it enough room
For the love, it comes from up above, let's stop talkin war and offer the dove

'Cause when it's done it's over, when it's over it's done
We look back at the wars, and see that nobody won
It's time to make a better life for our daughters and our sons
Or life will be a blast, pardon the pun