Barricades Lyrics - Singles - Jim Carroll

By jim carroll 

We should have left at once 

We should have never stayed 

Now they have drawn the line 

Now there is a barricade 

Now there's a barricade 

A barricade 

Who makes promises? 

Who makes promises through a thick lead door? 

Through an intercom on the 23rd floor? 

Who makes promises and then promises more? 

Who makes promises for El Salvador? 

Bobby's getting called, Billy's getting called 

Juan's getting called, John's getting called . . . 

They get a letter in the mail, they get a telephone call 

It says, "come on, come on" 

It says, "come on" 

All the American boys 

Asleep beneath American shade 

Awake on foreign soil 

They awake inside the barricades 

Inside the barricades 

The sun curves over the jungle 

And trees grow from the dead nun's lungs 

But when the ship is in the harbor 

Then the cyanide pill's on their tongue 

Inside the barricade, inside the barricade 

Bobby's getting called, Eddie's getting called up 

They get a telephone call, they get a letter in the mail 

Your ship's about to sail, your ship's about to sail 

They say, "come on," they say, "come on, come along" 

They say, "come on, come on." 

Girls, no more going out dancing 

And boys, there's no more getting laid 

You're gonna parachute to the holy land 

And you will drop into the barricades 

Inside the barricades, inside the barricades 

Who makes promises for the neutron bomb? 

It will sign your lungs to death 

And leave the corporate walls unharmed . . . 

Who makes promises with such insidious charm? 

But it would have made things cleaner 

In old Vietnam . . . 

That's when Kevin got called up 

Ritchie got called . . . 

And Kevin never came back 

Ritchie never came home 

Their folks got a letter in the mail 

THEY GOT A LETTER IN THE MAIL . . . 

I ain't gonna die for Standard Oil 

I.B.M. . . . I wouldn't die for them! 

G.E.? Not me! 

"Come on," they say, "come on" 

They say "come on," 

And you say, "ahh" . . . 

You just say "LATER!"