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Perpetual Motion Machine

When he was ten he had the notion
About a thing called perpetual motion.
Worked all day in his daddy’s shop
To invent a machine that would never stop.
He’s been at it now for sixty-seven years,
Wheels, weights and balances, levers and gears.
He keeps working on his great endeavor
To make it go around and around forever.

A young boy’s notion and an old man’s dream,
Oh, perpetual motion machine.
Craziest thing that you’ve ever seen,
Perpetual motion machine.

His wife’s complaining he’s getting thinner,
Works in his garage every night after dinner.
When he thinks about it he can’t sleep,
He tosses and he turns and he grinds his teeth.
He just wants to leave something behind,
Yeah, for the benefit of all mankind.
He says he’s almost got it, can’t give up now,
He’s sure it’ll all work if he can figure out how.

A young boy’s notion and an old man’s dream…etc.

That machine don’t work yet but he keeps on trying,
And that’s the most important thing he’s leaving behind.

A young boy’s notion and an old man’s dream…etc.

He never gives up, he never gives up,
He’s always working day and night.
He never gives up, he never gives up,
He never gives up working, day or night.

Push On Through

We had enough of the bad news
To last us for a while.
Makes you feel you got no right to smile.
Rip-offs and inflation, ecological calamity,
It makes you wonder if the next
Endangered species is gonna be you and me.

We gotta push on, push on through,
Everybody gotta push on through.
We gotta push on, push on through,
Gotta take it on through.

We’re all in the same canoe,
Just around the bend is something new
If we just push on, push on through.

The weather’s acting strangely.
The North Pole’s slipping south,
There’s an epidemic of foot-in-mouth.
We think there’s nowhere to go
Since they’ve been driving on the moon.
It feels like almost midnight
But maybe it ain’t even noon.

We gotta push on, push on through,
Everybody gotta push on through.
We gotta push on, push on through,
Gotta take it on through.

There’s a whole lot left to do,
Come on! Let’s put ourselves in our own Who’s Who,
And push on, push on through.

Some people struggling to survive
But still they keep on dreaming.
Other people have arrived
But are looking for the meaning.
We may be running short of energy
But inside we got the power
To turn all this adversity
Into our finest hour.
We’re all in the human race now,
We all know where we been.
If everybody takes his place now,
Everybody’s gonna win.

We gotta push on, push on through,
We’re all in the same canoe,
Just around the bend is something new
If we just push on, push on through,
Everybody push on through.

What Color Is God’s Skin?

“Good-night” I said to my little son
So tired out when the day was done.
Then he said as I tucked him in
“Tell me Daddy what color’s God’s skin?”

What color is God’s skin?
I said it’s black brown it’s yellow
It is red it is white.
Ev’ry man’s the same in the good Lord’s sight.”

He looked at me with his shining eyes
I knew I could tell no lies
When he said Daddy why do the diff’rent races fight
If we’re the same in the good Lord’s sight?”

What color is God’s skin?… etc.

Son that’s part of our suffering past
But the whole human family is learning at last
That the thing we missed on the road we trod
Is to walk as the daughters and the sons of God.”

What color is God’s skin?… etc.

Up With People!

It happened just this morning, I was walking down the street,
The milkman and the postman and policeman I did meet.
There in ev’ry window and ev’ry single door,
I recognized people I’d never noticed before.

Up! Up with people!
You meet ‘em wherever you go,
Up! Up with People!
They’re the best kind of folks we know.
If more people were for people,
All people ev’rywhere,
There’d be a lot less people to worry about,
And a lot more people who care.

People from the south-land and people from the north,
Like a mighty army, I saw them coming forth.
‘Twas a great reunion, befitting of a king!
Then I realized people were more important than things.

Up! Up with people!… etc.

Moon Rider

The painter tries to paint it the poet tries to say it
The philosopher tries to convey the meaning to your mind.
But here I am – a quarter million miles away
One human being – one human seeing it for the first time.

I can see the white of snow-capped mountains
The blues and turquoise of the oceans blend.
Australia and Asia coming round the corner
And I can’t tell where one country starts and the other one ends.

The sun is setting on the Pacific
They’re just getting up in Rome.
I don’t see the lights of my city
All I can see is home.

I saw the world without any borders
Without any fighting without any fear
So Captain give the order
We’re going to cross the next frontier.

I know this view won’t last forever
Soon I’ll be back to reality.
But isn’t it the way we perceive things
That makes them what they will be?

I see the world without any borders … etc.

Give the Children Back Their Childhood

Give the children back their childhood
Let the children run and play.
Don’t make them fight your battles
They’re the ones who always seem to pay.

Don’t make battlefields of their playgrounds
Don’t barricade their streets
Or they’ll grow up to soon
And they won’t grow up complete.

You can raise them on your hatred;
Revel in it, that’s your right
But if you do just remember
It’ll haunt their sleep at night.

A little mommy feeds her baby
Giving all the love she knows.
A tiny builder’s building bridges
to a world in which he’s going to grow.

Give the children back their childhood
Let the children run and play
And skip away on wings of fantasy
And dream of what they’ll be some day.

Don’t feed their minds with your bitter lines
And the prejudice that is yours
And they just may forget some day to carry on our wars.
And they just may forget some day to carry on our wars.

El Puente

Veo un país de altas montañas
Pirámides y campos floridos
y un pueblo ardiente
animado por sus corridos.
Veo sus familias a través de la gloria
y también del dolor
siempre abrazando las esperanza
de un mundo major.Veo un día un día de armonía
que viene entre la gente
y grandes y pequeños
con todos sus sueños
atravesando un puente.

Este mundo es como un huérfano
perdido y sin hogar
en la orilla de un gran río
que no puede atravesar.
Cada hombre y mujer colocan las piedras
del puente que están levantando
hacia el gran porvenir que los niños
un día estarán disfrutando.

(Translation)
I see a country of high mountains
of pyramids and verdant fields
and a passionate people
inspired by its epic songs.I see its families
through glory and through pain
always holding on to the hope
of a better world.

I see a day coming
a day of harmony among people
and great and small with all their dreams
crossing a bridge.

This world is like an orphan
lost and without a home
standing on the bank of a great river he cannot cross.
Each man and woman lays the stones
of the bridge that is being built
towards the great future
that the children will one day enjoy.

I see a day coming…etc.