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There's a First Time for Everything

from Ain't It a Pity? by Sam Steffen

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lyrics

You billionaires in your big easy chairs
counting your coins and your dough
What do you need with all that money?
You can’t take it with you, you know
You’ve hedged all your bets, you’ve become a success,
your kingdom spreads out far and wide
but when will your stuff ever bring you enough?
When will you be satisfied?

When pigs learn to fly, when hell freezes o’er
When the rocks in the mountains can sing
But just cause they don’t, it don’t mean that they won’t
There’s a first time for everything

You big-business bosses who cut all your losses
Who pay less than the minimum wage
Whose labor’s on lease somewheres overseas
Cause it’s cheaper and all of the rage
What will you say to folks comin your way
When outside your door they are packed
Screamin for work and callin you jerk
Sayin, “When can we have our jobs back?”

Chorus

Now the healthcare debate in the united states
Is as fierce as it is anywhere
When the state of your health depends on your wealth
That don’t exactly seem fair
I need to be cured, but I ain’t insured
It’s the most I can do just to beg
When will I receive the care that I need
Without payin an arm and a leg?

Chorus

You judges who sit, who condemn and acquit
Who hear bout the worst that men do
Aloft in your towers with your gowns and your powers
Who gets to pass judgment on you?
You’ll seal a man’s fate to be killed by the state
You’ll kill thinking your doing what’s best
But when will a man’s life be too high a price
To weigh in the scales against death?

Chorus

Now the world is at war over oil and ore
Over power and territory
Over whose God is in charge and whose is not
On that point no one can agree
Meanwhile bombs descend on women and children
When O when will it cease?
When will the fight desist for the night
When will the world live in peace?

Chorus

Now perhaps I’m naieve, as green as the leaves
That sprout on the trees in the spring
Maybe I’m touched to be thinking so much
We all know what wishin can bring
Perhaps I’m a dope to hope without hope
But there’s one thing that I’ve always known
If you want things to improve, well you gotta move
Cause they ain’t gonna change on their own

So get yourself wise and get organized
Lift up your voices and sing
Cause if you don’t, they probably wont
There’s a last time for everything

credits

from Ain't It a Pity?, released July 31, 2016

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Sam Steffen Boise, Idaho

Sam Steffen is a Pennsylvania-bred, Boise-based singer-songwriter whose songs are the torch-wood for a new generation of folk music that has learned from the best stuff in the tradition and aims in spite of everything to keep the human spirit alive and kicking. A versatile musician and skilled finger-picker, Sam is at heart a story-teller, and a prolific one. ... more

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