In Forty Days

Yessee, yessee uh, huh i will do that
What time does the meeting start?

He may be a little late
Because he's writing, writing, writing
But anyway, he'll come down
I'll have him do that you're welcome bye Bye

In forty days I'm going to
Be busted for three years
For refusing to cooperate with the draft
I mean, the initial presumption
Of something like military conscription
Is that the lives of the people subject to it
Don't belong to those people
I mеan, that those lives exist
As tools and propеrty of the state
I mean, when you're given a draft card
It's a very simple statement
I mean, it's like a deed of ownership
It says the life of the bearer
Belongs to the United States of America
And it's government and the
Society it represents
To be used as those things see fit

Hot soul baby!

Yeah, well how come you're
Not sure about that?
That's right on and classic

It's not being sure about that
It's that I feel like
I feel as thought I'm mimicking
Like I could never sing the blues because
I mean, what's an eighteen year-old
Middle-class, well-fed
Well dressed American chick
Got doing singing the blues?
You know, so I never? what I sing

I mean, if you think about fears
It really makes people blind
You know, it allows grown men
To drop jellied gasoline on children
Which is what does happen every day

It's exactly that kind of
Blindness that allows a few men to live off
In luxury off the starvation
Of thousands upon thousands
I mean, maybe the best way to explain
Why that process happens in the
World is to say we live in a blind society
I mean, a society that is blind to it'self
Is blind to the rest of the world

When I listen to music there's spiritual
And very spiritual music
Sort of mental spiritual music
Which is all, you know, classical
And then there's these funny levels
Somewhere at the bottom of it
There's gut music
Not that it's bad, because there are times
When gut music is the only
Thing that can move you
The only thing you feel
Why is that less than any other one?

Three years ago noncooperation with the draft
Was not a reality
There were a few people who did it
But you know, by and large
Nobody knew about it
And nobody had any idea that it was possible
For them to do that

And I remember, you know, when I first sent
My first draft card back, and I was
Student body president at Stanford
And going out on White's Claw at Stanford
And you know
Hey I just sent my draft card back
And people, you know people's reaction was
You know, Jesus, the cat's crazy, you know
And then they watched
And suddenly that became a reality
Because everyone
A lot of those people who thought I was crazy
Sent their draft cards back you know
It doesn't matter whether Richard Nixon
Wants to have an army
If are there are no soldiers
Richard Nixon can't have an army
I mean, if the people of this country
Decide that they aren't going to
Be part of that army
Then there's not going to be an army

They're going to have to relate to my life
They're going to have to relate to the fact
That I'm always telling people to
Go a step beyond entertaining
And go a a step beyond just
Filling people's heads with something
You know
Like I refuse to call myself an entertainer
I refuse to be an entertainer
I refuse to let an evening go by
With just having had people be entertained