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I don't usually put any personal comments on any of the song pages,
but this one is so special to me, that I have to.
As I've said elsewhere, after September 11th, I really wanted, and needed something to help me make sense of it all... and to make me feel proud of being American. As I've listened again and again to Tin Type, I've come to realize that (for me anyway) it is more than it appears... a piece about the tragedy of the Civil War. Many of the same words that Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg... that Bill so emotionally recalls... seem to me to be equally powerful, when spoken over a gaping open pit in the middle of Mannhattan, or a blackened crater, in a field in Pennsylvania, or a broken and jagged hole, in the side of The Pentagon. I can't say if this was in Bill's mind as well, when he wrote and performed Tin Type. Whether it was or not, when I listen, I feel sad, and proud, and it helps me understand. Freedom is not free. It must be purchased in blood and strife. It has ever been so. And we must never, ever forget that truth, or those who have paid that price, for the freedom in which we live. And those who would seek to harm us, should never, ever, mistake our differences and disagreements as a sign of weakness. We are... The United States of America! Lincoln's words echo as a perfect a tribute now, just as powerfully as they did on that blue grey day. Thanks Bill, for reminding us of these things. |
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There was a time, in those tin type days of our long-lost America
when we pictured ourselves... together!
Families! Good Friends! One great nation, under God and the Flag.
We were... The United States of America!
But... there was a time, when those rusting tin types in our family albums showed a nation broken in two... ripped apart at the very seams of two Flags! So torn apart, we fought each other, fathers against fathers, sons against sons... some as young as fifteen! And tearful mothers kissed their good little boys goodbye, they marched off to war to fight for one flag or another, or to die, crying. And... there was a time of course, one blue-gray day, a time to honor the graves of our gallant young men and our good little boys who'd given their lives for their flag. So, there, at Gettysburg, came a tall quiet man, a man with the truth of the prairies in his eyes, and a deep sadness in his heart... to say a few kind words... The sound of his voice is forgotten now, lost in time and space, but we will never forget... his words... Four score and seven years ago... our fathers brought forth on this continent... a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, said this... "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." But we do remember what they did, Mr. President... and we will never, never forget you... or your last few words... your last, few... precious... words... "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we, here, highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and this government of the people... by the people... for the people... shall not perish from the earth." There was a time... in those tin type days... of our great, great grandfathers... when the war between ourselves was over. When, once again... we called ourselves... the United States... of America. |
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