Luke Kelly Alabama '58 Lyrics

In Alabama 1958
The cost of human life is very low
A man that's black is trampled down
Just like they were a thousand years ago

But these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

Two thousand years ago a million men
Were gathered into royal Egypt's land
Were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sand

But these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

Mary's son walked through a land of woe
Dreaming of the world as it could be
But the good and lawful men of Rome
Bound him like a robber to a tree

But these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

In Britain just a hundred years ago
The jails were full of good and hungry men
Diggers, fenians, many more Fought and died but rose to fight again

But these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

Last year a negro stole a dollar bill
The judge he said "We mustn't be severe
Instead of death we'll give him life imprisonment
To show there's justice here"

For these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

And so throughout the ages you have seen
How progress marches ever on its way
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today

For these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man may walk his road in peace
For all are free!

In these more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave and let them go
Now every man should walk his road in peace
Let man be free!