Ragman - David Indian

concerning the destruction by firebomb
in the pre-dawn hours of July 28. 1983.
of the Klanwatch Project headquarters
of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Montgomery, Alabama.

got me a letter from Alabam'
had another sighting of the old Ragman
he torched some lawyers' offices
one day before the dawn

they'd been prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan
but some gasoline and a crafty hand
burned down their files and evidence
to ashes

it was a Ragman taking his time
twist his tongue on the raggedy rhyme
Ragman dancing on the wind
to the beat of the times

a note about Ragman.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a 13-year-old legal rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. Following the destruction of their office buiIding, in which no one was injured, they have undertaken the construction of a new headquarters building on a site one block away from where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began the Montgomery Bus Boycott (and two blocks from the Alabama State Capitol, where George Wallace swore to uphold segregation forever). The new and more secure buiIding will be finished early in 1985.
The SPLC does vital, pro-democractic work. They depend on private (tax- deductable) contributions to finance their legal efforts against various Klan groups around the country, as well as to pay for the cost of their new center.
All contributions and messages of support (equally important!) should
be addressed to:

Mr. Morris Dees
SPLC-Klanwatch Project
1001 South Hull Street
Montgomery, Alabama 36195

Ragman laughing at the scene of the crime

driving his cart and drinking his wine

searching for something to plunder

off the ravaged vine

Ragman! Ragman!

Ragman he been around before
was a wallpaper hanger in '24
and in '37. he and your Uncle Joe
was very good friends

Ragman he made it out alive
surfaced in Nuremberg in '45
picked his teeth while the cameras turned

Ragman turned the Jews to snow
froze the roses in the archipelago
and he lords it over some boardroom today
he's a very big C.E.O.

Ragman! Ragman!

Ragman's keeping the black man down
from a one-flight walk-up in Capetown
try to poison the soul of a people
who still know how to sing

changed his name to Mu'ammar
won't be done til he's left a scar
across the heart of Africa
where the lakes of Paradise once lay

Ragman! takes his time
twist his tongue on the raggedy rhyme
Ragman! dancing on the wind
to the beat of the times

Ragman! laughing at the scene of the crime
driving his cart and drinking his wine
searching for something to plunder
off the ravaged vine

Ragman! Ragman!

the Ragman he never settle down
drags his bones from town to town
beats his horses to death
with the burden of the way

travel at night on the backroads best
cast his shadow on the baby's breath
rents himself a farm
in the valley of the shadow

the Ragman he never steal your soul
give all his agents full control
kick back in his boredom
see how low it can go

keeping himself to a low profile
a hunter in the dark and all the while
everybody's running, but I'm telling you
love is his nemesis's name

Ragman! Ragman!

well, I got me a letter from Alabam'
had another sighting of the old Ragman
he torched some lawyer's offices
one day before the dawn

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