Just My Soul Responding

(album: Smokey - 1973)

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

A few years ago on my birthday
I had just become twenty-one
(I remember)
I had a lot to live, said I had a lot to give
Till a man comes to had me a gun
And though that war he sent me to didn't claim me
If I'm bitter don't blame me

It's just my soul responding
Don't you try to tell me I'm unpatriotic
I deserve an explanation
I can't help but wonder if you really got it
It's just my soul responding
Soul responding, soul responding

This land once belonged to my father
And to his father before him too
Let me tell you now, I'm on a reservation
Living in a state of degradation
What's a soul suppose to do?
'Cause I'm out, pushing, right?
I'm not in doubt

When it's just my soul responding
Oh, to seeing little hungry children
In the land of plenty
Just my soul responding
Oh, to doing lots of needing and never having any
It's just my soul responding
Soul responding, soul responding, soul responding

I was born and raised in the ghetto
On the rundown side of the track
And there are forces who do everything they can do
To hold me back because my skin is black
Oh, don't they know I want mine, hell, it's about time

It's just my soul responding
Oh, to being second-class in a land I helped to form
Just my soul responding
To too many roaches and not enough heat
To keep my babies warm
In this land I helped to form
I've got too many roaches and not enough heat
To keep my babies warm
It's just my soul responding
Soul responding, soul responding
Soul responding, soul responding, soul responding

It's just my soul, it's just my soul
It's just my soul, it's just my soul
It's just my soul, it's just my soul
Soul responding, soul responding
Soul responding, soul responding