Let Us Begin (what Are We Making Weapons For) Lyrics - John Denver

This song was first released on the One World Album. It is the only album it appears on. 

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 

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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 

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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 

Words and music by John Denver