Trouble the Waters

Written for the Wooden Shoe Ramblers and for Jessica Garraway's voice, reflecting on the George Floyd Uprising of 2020, which I was among the arrestees of. 

Am E Am
Well it’s a bourgeois town and you get shook down
E Am 
from the lakes on down to the river
Am E Am
In the Fourth to the Third, it’s the dreams we deferred, 
E Am
and the promises never delivered 
C G
The cop gets his check to put a boot on your neck,
F B7
rolling through here like an occupier
Am E Am
Dying under the knee, screaming out I can’t breathe, 
E Am
this place was burning long before it caught fire

E Am
Time came to trouble the waters,
F B7
Time came to trouble the waters
Am E Am
Won’t let my people go, we gonna overthrow
Am E Am
And the time came to trouble the waters

Am E Am
The storm had to break; there was the battle on Lake,
E Am
And by night all the blacktop was smoking
Am E Am
Behind the barricades that the shopping carts made
E Am
A cry for freedom but the city was choking
C G
With the shock and the shell they damned us to hell
F B7
And the canisters were bursting like mines
Am E Am
But like Elijah had prayed, the wind shifted away,
E Am
and blew the gas back onto their lines

Time came to trouble the waters,
Time came to trouble the waters
Won’t let my people go, we gonna overthrow
And the time came to trouble the waters

In the heat and smoke, the structure shuddered and broke
Rose like the river to wash over the blood
and like the Red Sea conquered pharaoh's army
The precinct was a loss in the flood
When the cops hit the street they did a running retreat
But the city was a bright jubilee
No it wasn’t a fire, it was a funeral pyre
It was the star that lights the path to be free

Time came to trouble the waters,
Time came to trouble the waters
Won’t let my people go, we gonna overthrow
And the time came to trouble the waters