Medley: The Declaration / A Change Is Gonna Come / People Gotta Be Free

(álbum: Portrait - 1970)

[The Declaration]

We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men are are created equal
That they are endowed by their Creator
With certain unalienable rights

That among these are life
Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

That to secure these rights
Governments are instituted among men
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed

That whenever any
Form of government becomes
Destructive of these ends
It is the right of the people
To alter or to abolish it
And to institute new government

Laying it's foundation on such
Principles and organizing its
Powers in such form as to
Them shall seem most likely to
Effect their safety and happiness

Prudence, indeed will dictate that
Governments, long established
Should not be changed for light
And transient causes
And accordingly all experience has shown

That mankind are
More disposed to suffer
While evils are sufferable
Than to right themselves by
Abolishing the forms to which
They are accustomed

But when a long train
Of abuses and usurpations
Pursuing invariably the same object
Evinces a design to reduce them
Under absolute despotism

It is their right
It is their duty
To throw off such government
And to provide new guards
For their future security

For their future security
For their future security
For their future security


[A Change Is Gonna Come]

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change has got to come, oh yes, it will

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die
I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change has got to come, oh yes, it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say, "Brother, help me please"
But he just keep on knocking me to my knees

There've been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change has got to come, a change has got to come


[People Gotta Be Free]

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
Listen, please listen, that's the way it should be
There's peace in the valley, people got to be free

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
I can't understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free

Shout it from the mountain on out to the sea
No two ways about it, people have to be free
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Natural situation for a man to be free

Oh, what a feelin's just come over me
Love can move a mountain, make a blind man see
Everybody's dancing, come on let's go see
Peace in the valley now, we all can be free