Jim Carroll Barricades Lyrics

Barricades Lyrics

By Jim Carroll



We should have left at once

We should have never stayed

Now they have drawn the line

Now there is a barricade

Now there's a barricade

A barricade 

Who makes promises?

Who makes promises through a thick lead door?

Through an intercom on the 23rd floor?

Who makes promises and then promises more?

Who makes promises for El Salvador?



Bobby's getting called. Billy's getting called

Juan's getting called, John's getting called . . .

They get a letter in the mail, they get a telephone call



It says, "Come on, Come on . . ."

It says, "Come on . . ."



All the American boys

Asleep beneath American shade

Awake on foreign soil

They awake inside the barricades

Inside the barricades



The sun curves over the jungle

And trees grow from the dead nun's lungs

But when the ship is in the harbor

Then the cyanide pill's on their tongue

Inside the Barricade, inside the barricade



Girls, no more going out dancing

And boys, there's no more getting laid

You're gonna parachute to the holy land

And you will drop into the barricades

Inside the barricades, inside the barricades



Who makes promises for the Neutron bomb?

It will sign your lungs to death

And leave the corporate walls unharmed . . .

Who makes promises with such insidious charm?

But it would have made things cleaner

In old Vietnam . . .



That's when Kevin got called up

Ritchie got called . . .

And Kevin never came back

Ritchie never came home



Their folks got a letter in the mail

THEY GOT A LETTER IN THE MAIL . . .



I ain't gonna die for Standard Oil

I.B.M. . . . I wouldn't die for them!

G.E.? Not me!



"Come on," they say, "Come on"

They say "Come on,"

And you say, "ahh" . . .

You just say "LATER!"