I remember when I first went to school They said, Don't be a joker, don't be a fool Pledge your allegiance to the red, white and blue Don't expect your country to do nothin' for you They said your forefathers loved you But I only had one And I watched him die in the heat of the sun Suckin' up the bullets of a policeman's gun There was nothin' I could do but stay away In the U.S.A. you gotta take your chances If you plan on stayin' free They call this the land of the living But they're trying to make a dead man out of me I remember when I first hit the road I was runnin' from the lenders of the money I owed Came to Austin, heard a knock at my door Crossed another border and I'm runnin' some more They say they're gonna get me but it ain't happened yet Burnin' my fingers on my last cigarette It's time to remember time to forget Nothin' I could do but get away I remember all the stories I heard How a man's supposed to be 'bout as free as a bird My brother's in prison, my father's dead Me, I'm tired of living with a price on my head I wonder if there's a place to be In the whole wide country for a fella like me Name's in the paper, face on T.V. Nothin'I can do but get away