Coin of the Realm

[Verse 1]
And George was not sleeping with Martha
On the day the first coin of the realm changed hands
For the founding fathers had faltered
In the years after they had been to France
How it turned their heads, you see
Away from tea and tranquility
And that silver six and three
And the portrait that pleased his majesty
On the coin of the realm

[Verse 2]
What George held in his hands that night
Was a brand new face of liberty
With flowing hair and a winsome smile
And a wildness that abandon somehow sets free
Not the Marthas or the Abigails
With their tight and labored buns and braids
But a thousand fantasies set sail
By the wanton women of the barricades
On the coin of the realm

[Chorus]
The myth stands firm
As firm as young breasts
And the eagle's return
Safe in their endangeredness
In God we trust all the rest
In the coin of the realm

[Verse 3]
And George he did not sleep too well that night
With a thousand campfires he could not see
Of those who took the liberty to fight
Some fine feathered friends who had become the enemy
And George who had fought to free the slaves
Could not make the jump to free himself
By taking seriously those braves
With their beaten drums and beaded belts
On the coin of the realm

[Verse 4]
Ah, but business is in the habit of making strange bedfellows
Consider Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill
And how the ancient treaties had yellowed
In the golden glow of the Black Hills
And the noble savage is no more
Decimated by disease and war
And the beautiful bison that played the plains
Are now engraved and deeply engrained
In the coin of the realm

[Chorus]
The myth stands firm
As firm as young breasts
And the eagle's return
Safe in their endangeredness
In God we trust all the rest
In the coin of the realm