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Town Hall, New York City NY - 12.apr.1963
The Bear, Chicago IL - 25.apr.1963
Newport Folk Festival, Newport RI - 27.jul.1963, "ballads worshop", w/ Joan Baez
The Times They Are a-Changin' session 2, Columbia Studio A, NYC - 7.aug.1963, album version
Philharmonic Hall, NYC - 31.oct.1964
Rolling Thunder Revue, Civic Center, Providence, RI - 4.nov.1975, afternoon (p)
Radio City Music Hall, NYC - 19.oct.1988, with extra "Vietnam verse" (v)
MTV Unplugged, Sony Studios, NYC - 17.nov.1994
Oh, my name it ain't nothin', my age it means less
The country I come from is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there, the laws to abide
And that the land that I live in has God on its side.
Oh, the history books tell it, they tell it so well
The cavalries charged, the Indians fell
The cavalries charged, the Indians died
Oh, the country was young with God on its side.
The Spanish American war had its day
And the Civil War too was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes i's made to memorize
With guns in their hands and God on their side.
The First World War, boys, it came an it went
The reason for fightin' I never did get
But I learned to accept it, accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead when God's on your side.
The Second World War boys, came to an end
We forgave the Germans and then we were friends
Though they murdered six million, in the ovens they fried
The Germans now too have God on their side.
(v) In the 1960's came the Vietnam War
Can somebody tell me what we're fighting for?
So many young men died, so many young mothers cried
Now I ask the question "Was God on our side?"
I've learned to hate Russians all through my whole life (p)
If another war comes it's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them, to run and to hide
And accept it all bravely with God on my side.
But now we got weapons of chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to, then fire them we must
One push of the button an' shot the world wide
An' you never ask questions when God's on your side
Through a many dark hour i've been thinkin' 'bout this
That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin', i'm weary as hell
The confusion I'm feelin' ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head and fall to the floor
That if God's on our side, he'll stop the next war.
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(p) Providence RI - 4.nov.1975, afternoon show
I've learned to hate Russia and China and Korea and Vietnam
and Bulgaria and Poland and South America and Cuba through my whole life
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