Blood on the Flag

by Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream)

supported by
Christopher Haynes
Christopher Haynes thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

about

"Don't leave your own country, till the trial do come on
For they never will hang you for the shooting of a swan"

a re-working of a traditional Irish ballad-- called Polly Vaughn-- with new lyrics reflecting on the American relationship with violence.

lyrics

There is blood on the flag from America's birth
We fired a pistol, and the shot filled the earth
It rung through our ears like a bell in a tower
And fatally sounded both the minute and the hour

It wasn't the first time the blood stained our hands
For once there was peace through this beautiful land
The birdcalls have scattered, we've shattered our ears
And the ones who were born here have left here in tears

Oh, how shall we color the flag of our land?
The red, white and blue we will dye with our hands
The blue and the white from the sea and the sun
And the red of the flag from the ones we shot down

And how shall we make it, this flag of our land?
We must cut it and stitch it, that I understand
With swords and sledgehammers, we'll carve out the cloth
With pledges and loyalty, quilt it as one

This won't be the last time we aim and we fire
For the rungs on the ladder reach higher and higher
We'll soon have to ask, as our hands clutch the wood
Oh, how will we live amongst all of this blood?

There is blood on our hands, and there's blood on the boil
There is blood on the sky, and it falls to the soil
There is blood on the wings, hear the wounded eagle call
But the blood on the flag is the reddest of all

credits

released January 22, 2019
written and sung by Norma Jean Haynes
fiddle performed by Mary Lauren Fraser

produced by Christopher Haynes and Anand Nyack
engineered by Judy Elliott-Brown
at the Institute for the Musical Arts, Goshen MA
March 2018

painting by Page Page, Ipswich MA

license

tags

about

Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream) image

Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream) Massachusetts

Norma Dream/Norma Jean Haynes
Northampton, Massachusetts

folk songs finely wrought, deeply rooted

odes to the angels

contact / help

Contact Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream)

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream), you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now