The Staple Singers

 A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall


Oh, where have you been, my wondering son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my wondering son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, that roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave you could drown the whole world 
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard the sound of one person who said he was un-human
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my wondering son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred

I met ten thousand whispering and nobody listening
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Now what will yo do, my wondering son?
what will you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where black is the color, where none is the number

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
And I'll tell and speak it and think it and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so all souls may see it
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall