Category Archives: Lyrics

These are lyrics to songs written by Peter Bergel.

                                   Medicare for All

                                            Copyright 2015 by Peter Bergel

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It“

Listen to Dr. Atomic’s Medicine Show play this song.

G                            Em               Am
Tell me how this sounds for health care
C                                                                     D
You’re covered just as soon as you are born
G                           Em              Am
Paying for it no longer is a nightmare
C                                                            D
Your bills don’t read like economic porn

Chorus
C
Medicare for you
G
Medicare for me
C                        Em
Medicare’s the kind of care
Am                        D
That everybody needs.

G                              Em                         Am
Obamacare beats out the former system
C                                                  D
But it’s still run by corporate greed
G                                     Em       Am
Fairness means we’ve got to resist ‘em
C                                               D
Medicare for all is what we need

Chorus

And don’t be afraid of the S-word
Not if you got here on a public street
Don’t let your thinking be censored
By right-wing nuts and corporate elites.

Chorus

Don’t vote against your best interests
Insurance profits don’t help you get well
The fear that’s created by alarmists
Is all just to make you buy the scam they sell.

Chorus

You say you don’t want health care to be rationed
Guess what, my friend, it already is
But reserving health for rich folks is old fashioned
Let’s give it to the people not big biz

Chorus, then:

C           Am                  D                 G
It’s the kind of care everybody needs.

Please Share My Dream

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Please Share My Dream

Copyright 2014 by Peter Bergel

 

Chorus

Am                                                      D
I have a dream, please share my dream
Am                                                      D
I have a dream, please share my dream
C                                             G                      E
I want a world that really works for everyone.

Am                                G               F                       E
Democracy means everybody gets to have a say
Am                                 G              F              E
Especially when everyone’s expected to pay

Chorus

Developers and rich folks are all part of the mix
But we don’t want them to control our city’s politics

Chorus

Democracy means openness – the plans are not concealed
All the cards are played face up and everything’s revealed

Chorus

The folks who sing this song are informed and observant
They watch the ones at City Hall who’re called public servants

Chorus

Spending fortunes on big projects creates a dollar squeeze
That undermines some of our more important priorities

Chorus

Madmen at the Throttle

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Cheney & BushMadmen at the Throttle

                                                   Copyright 2015 by Peter Bergel

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It”

 

Em                                         A7

I’m just a guy who likes the Bill of Rights

Em                                            A7

I’m getting’ so worried I can’t go to sleep at night

B7

My country’s paranoid, too obsessed with being strong,

A7

They’ve gotten so confused that they can’t tell right from wrong. They’re just..

 

Chorus

Em                                      A

Madmen at the throttle, drunk drivers at the wheel

Em                                                  A

Junkies in the pilot’s seat don’t ask us how we feel.

B7

We know if nothing changes, we’ll all be out of luck,

A                                                  A7               Em

‘Cuz all they want to do is just roll us for a buck.

 

Well I woke up this mornin’, the news was all bad

The President was spendin’ all the money we had

Tryin’ to make our country world’s scariest hoodlum

He’s writin’ us a ticket straight to Kingdom Come. He’s a …

 

Cho.

 

The reason for this madness they say is terrorists

That excuse, since 911, replaces “communists”

Everything we do they want to manipulate

It’s just another way for them to tell us who to hate. They’re just…

 

Cho.

 

They say that we should trust ‘em with our security

They know best, they tell us, just how to keep us free

Their answer to our problems is find someone to erase

They can’t see the main threat though it’s right there in their face. I say they’re…

 

Cho.

 

They’re pointing to Al Qaeda, tellin’ us to be real scared

‘Cuz if they get the upper hand then no one will be spared

But folks we’ve got priorities we’ve got to rearrange

‘Cuz we’re lookin’ down the barrel of global climate change. They’re just…

 

Cho.

Leave It in the Ground

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This climate change song has a singable chorus that people pick up quickly.

Leave it in the GroundLeave It in the Ground

 

Copyright Peter Bergel 2015

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It“

 

Click here to see Peter Bergel teaching the chorus and leading a participating audience in singing this song.

Em                                                          D                      Em
Tearing off your mountain tops delights Peabody Coal
D                           Em
They don’t care about the mess that’s building their bankroll
G                        D                       C                      B7
But if a global meltdown only makes you frown,
Em                                                                    D         Em
Maybe you should tell ‘em just to leave it in the ground.

Chorus
G                                          C
Leave it in the ground, leave it in the ground
                                             D
It really doesn’t matter how much coal (2-gas, 3-fuel, 4-fuel) you’ve found
G                                                    C                           G
Financial domination will do in all creation
                                                                  D                        G
So change your frackin’ ways and leave it in the ground.

People ‘round the country can light water from their taps
Fracking natch’ral gas makes their environment collapse
Perhaps it’s not so natch’ral if it makes nature come unwound
We’d all be better off just to leave it in the ground.

Chorus (gas)

If we burn the fossil fuels that they’ve already found
Our planet will heat up so much that we won’t be around
This message from the dinosaurs I will now expound:
You really better tell them to leave it in the ground.

Chorus (fuel)

We’ve all seen the fires, floods, the droughts and super storms, Even
Dittohead deniers know that this is not the norm
Unless we take some action and help nature to rebound
She’ll retaliate and she’ll leave us in the ground.

Chorus (fuel)

Peace Is Where You Make It

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I wrote this one on the occasion of my parents’ 75th birthdays. That was a long time ago, and they’re gone, but the song still works.

K & A Bergel's Schweitzer BookPeace Is Where You Make It

 Copyright Peter Bergel 2015

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It“

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see a video of Peter Bergel singing this song by himself.

Click here to see Peter Bergel leading a participating audience in singing this song.

G                                                                 C                                     G
My parents were not born here, they came from across the sea
C                                 G                                      D
It wasn’t what they planned on, it was the Nazi tyranny
G                                               G7               C                               G
They lost some of the their loved ones when they had to flee
C                     E                  A                             D           G
But while I was a-growin’ up, here’s what they said to me:

Chorus

G                                      E                           A      D                     G
Be as kind as you can manage as you travel through this life
G                         E                            A                                      D
Your family is larger than your husband kids and your wife
G                                                G7
You can praise the Lord without an exhibition
C                                                  C7
We don’t carry guns so don’t pass no ammunition
G                                          E                             A            D          G
And peace is where you make it ‘mid the struggle and the strife.

 

Times were hard for refugees, my folks were mighty poor
But in spite of that they had a son in 1944.
When I was five we all took off one bright hot summer day
We drove just about a thousand miles to hear Albert Schweitzer say:

Chorus

They were always teachers that’s what they love to do
And I wouldn’t have wanted to be the one to try to tell them they were through
How to conjugate a verb, when the Punic Wars were fought…
But right along with all of that, here’s what their students were taught:

Chorus

Now they’re getting older with mighty few regrets
But they’ve still got a lot to do and they aren’t stopping yet
I hope that I’ll be just the same if I make seventy-five
But meanwhile here’s a thought we all can use to help us to survive:

Chorus, repeat last line

Peter Bergel – Solo version

The Carbon Blues

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CarbonThe Carbon Blues

                                        Original Song by Huddie Ledbetter, New Words Copyright 2015 by Peter Bergel

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It”

 

Key of E

Chorus

                  A
I told ‘em no
E
I don’t want it no more
B7
I don’t want carbon power
C7       B7             E
In my land no more.

 

E
We all enjoy our comfort,

And we all want to be cool

That’s how we got addicted
E7
To these poisoned fossil fuels

Chorus

The power bosses tell us
You know you are our slave
You cannot escape us
Until you’re in your grave…

Chorus

Now you might be a lib’ral
Or a conservative
But are you just a fossil
Or do you use alternatives?

Chorus

I’ve gotta keep on singin’
Tell everyone the news
So you can understand
Why I’ve got these Carbon Blues

Chorus

 

Mad As Hell

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Mad as HellMad as Hell

                                                                                            Copyright 2015 by Peter Bergel

From the album “Peace Is Where You Make It“

Listen to Peter sing this song on the Mash-Up with Marc KMUZ Radio program

E
Now we’re in the red we used to be in the black

They bailed out the bankers, the rest fell through the cracks

They ate up my retirement, said, “Thanks for the snack,
E7
We made off with your money, we ain’t bringing it back.”

Chorus
A                                  A7
And I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more
B7                                A                                   E
Yes, I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more.

Corporate greed for oil sent poor folks to Iraq
They did a tour of duty then stop loss sent them back
They are getting paid peanuts while Blackwater gets the jack
We’re wasting lives and money while our country goes off track
And I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more (2x).

Well our healthcare system is another thing that’s broke
Don’t need to be sick for it to make you choke
If something should happen you’d be poor in just one stroke
The word that comes to mind to describe it is baroque.
And I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more (2x).

Just a few corporations want to own our food supply
You can vote with your dollars read the label ‘fore you buy
If it says Monsanto better make another try
Cause if they get their way you can kiss your ass goodbye
And I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more (2x).

They say before you run that first you’ve got to walk
So we better start a-walkin’, better not stop with talk
So stand up on your hind legs and say it before you balk
It’s time to realize we’re ‘tween a hard place and a rock
Say: I’m mad as hell, ain’t gonna take it no more (2x).

 

Click here to see Peter Bergel teaching the chorus and leading a participating audience in singing this song.