Ragged Old Flag - Live 1976

(It was about three years ago that

One afternoon, one man made that's when

When all that bad stuff was going on up here in Washington

You know when there was a pal of negativity hanging over this country

John Carter and I went to the Matheny and when I came out this afternoon

I felt good about the future of this country

'Cause there is a future of it said an arithmetic watching herbie rides again

And all that laughter and that energy youth

Me and 500 kids, that came out and we put him to bed that night, I wrote this

I walked through a county courthouse square

On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there

I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down

He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town"

I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit

And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it"

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down

This the first time you've come to our little town?

I said, "I think it is"

He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of that

Ragged old flag"

You see, we got a little hole in that flag there

When Washington took it across the Delaware

And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key set up watching it

Writing "Say Can You See"

It got a little rip in New Orleans, with Packingham and Jackson

Tugging at its seams

It almost fell at the Alamo

Beside the Texas flag

But she waved on though

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville

Got cut again at Shiloh Hill

There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg

And the south wind blew hard on that

Ragged old flag

On Flanders Field in World War I

She took a bad hole from a Bertha Gun

She turned blood red in World War II

She hung limp, and low by the time that went through

She was in Korea, Vietnam

She went where she's been sent by her Uncle Sam

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam

We were backward wavin' our back here at home

In her own good land here she's been abused

She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused

Not the very government for which she stands

Has scandalized throughout out the land

And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' color thin

But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in

'Cause she's been through the fire before

And she can take a whole lot more

So we raise her up every morning

And we bring her down slowly every night

We don't let her touch the ground

And we fold her up right

On second thought

I guess I do like to brag

'Cause I'm mighty proud of that

Ragged old flag

(Thank you)