Text: Joan Baez. Motherland.

Where in the hell can you go
Far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete that keeps crawling
It's way about 1,000 miles a day

Take one last look behind
Commit this to memory and mind
And don't miss this wasteland
This terrible place

When you leave
Keep your heart off your sleeve

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go, don't go, don't you go

Oh, my five and dime queen
Tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice, the bottomless
Cavernous greed, is that what you see?

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go, don't go

It's your happiness I want most of all
And for that I'd do anything at all, oh, mercy me
If you want the best of it or the most of all
If there's anything I can do at all

Now come on shot gun bride
What makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent and blameless
And free, what's that like to be?

Oh, motherland cradle me
Close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go, don't go

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go, don't go

Don't you go