This Short Shirt song was transcribed by listening to the recording. There are errors and omissions. You can help with that. Also need confirmation re the writer credit – I want to say Shelly Tobitt but I also want to be sure.
“Give me liberty or give me death”1
That’s the cry I hear
Ringing out
Across the land
Whether it’s in Uganda
Or whether it’s in Iran
Or whether it’s in Grenada or Dominica
For wherever a people are oppressed and downtrodden
They shall rise with a vengeance
That will shake the world
Cho. And no power
Not by might
No power
Not by force of will
Can stay the wrath of a people’s vengeance
Only when justice overlays the land
And men are free from fear
And free as one
When the fundamental rights
Of the people are not abridged
When liberty reigns
When justice reigns
And the language of truth
Pours down like rain
When treachery cease
When corruption cease
There is nothing to fear
….tyranny will persist
Dictate and oppress
Harass and distress
No power
No power
No power in this world
Can halt
The people’s quest for
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
I say freedom
No power
No power
No power
None at all
“Give me liberty or give me death”
Guns will never quell
The struggles of freedom
Where injustice dwells
The spirit of revolution
Will never bow down to a man
The quality of virtue increases beneath oppression
The more we are suppressed and denied our right
To pursue all happiness and liberty
It’s the greater our resistance
To tyranny shall be
Cho.
“Give me liberty or give me death”
Power without justice
Whithers away by sole intent
The people will never say die
Though at times we sigh and cry
And the presence of a calm
Does not mean there’ll never be a storm
… the weight and glory of men
Who feel they are gods and we should worship them
But like a whirlwind
There’ll come a day
The shark will be carried away
Cho.
===END===
1. The quote “give me liberty or give me death” is attributed to American Patrick Henry from a 1775 speech during the Virginia convention.
Wadadli Pen 