I watched the cop cars pull away
As smoke rose to the sky
They said Ma’s body could be repaired
But her spirit burned alive
The last words Pa said to me
As they hauled him off to jail
“Some are born to be the hammer boy
Some are born to be the nail”
Dust turned to fire
Lit from a funeral pyre
Death and resurrection came to me
My rage is a loaded gun
Passed down from father to son
The bell tolls, steady and slow
I always kept a candle lit
In the days when I fought for my meals
In the corridor of the infirmary
I learned to cheat and steal
I watched a lone bluebird sing
On the Marcy Projects steps
He sang for the love that flew away
Sang so we don’t forget
In the eye of the storm
We all shall be reborn
Death and resurrection came to me
Thunder sang like the widows moan
I’ve been cleansed along the road
The Bell tolls, steady and slow
Turn your lamp down low
The devil you know
Is always close behind
I feel the madness now
In the world all around
Death and resurrection’s all I see
Both hero and hoodlum know
No man can be bought and sold
The bell tolls, steady and slow
There in the eye of the storm
I finally was reborn
Death and resurrection came to me
Thunder sang like the widows moan
I’ve been cleansed along the road
The bell tolls, steady and slow