Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead) - Unedited version from original live concert

We want to do a tune

Written for today

For this hour

For Dr. Martin Luther King

We've stated before that the whole program is dedicated to his memory

But this tune is written about him, and for him and so

We had yesterday to learn it and

So we'll see

Once upon this planet Earth

Lived a man of humble birth

Preaching love and freedom for his fellow men

He was dreaming of a day

Peace would come to Earth to stay

And he spread this message all across the land

Turn the other cheek, he'd plead

Love thy neighbor was his creed

Pain, humiliation, death, he did not dread

With his Bible at his side

From his foes he did not hide

It's hard to think that this great man is dead

(Oh yes)

Will the murders never cease?

Are they men or are they beasts?

What do they ever hope, ever hope to gain?

Will my country fall, stand or fall?

Is it too late for us all?

And did Martin Luther King just die in vain?

'Cuz he'd seen the mountaintop

And he knew he could not stop

Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks, you'd better stop and think

'Cuz we're heading for the brink

What will happen now that he is dead?

He was for equality

For all people, you and me

Full of love and good will, hate was not his way

He was not a violent man

Bigotry had sealed his fate

We can all shed tears, but it won't change a thing

Teach your people, will they ever learn?

Must you always kill with burn and burn with guns

And kill with guns and burn?

Don't you know how we gotta react?

Don't you know what it will bring?

But he'd seen the mountaintop

And he knew he could not stop

Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks, you'd better stop and think

Cause everybody knows were on the brink

What's will happen now that the king is dead?

'Cause see, he'd seen the mountaintop

And he knew he could not stop

Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks, you'd better stop and think and feel again

For we're headed for the brink

What's gonna happen now in all of our cities?

My people are rising

They're living in lies

Even if they have to die

Even if they have to die at the moment that they know what life is

(Yeah)

Even at that one moment that ya know what life is

If you have to die, it's all right

'Cause you know what life is

You know what freedom is

For one moment of your life

What's gonna happen now that the king of love is dead?

Um, I heard

That, um

Well, we've heard all kinds of stories

But I heard that

This was his favorite song

At least at the near the end of his life

Last year, a year ago

Maybe more, longer than that now

Lorraine Hansberry left us, and she was a dear friend, and

She had her favorite song

Then Langston Hughes left us

Coltrane left us

Otis Redding left us

Who can go on? Do you realize how many we have lost?

Then it really gets down to reality, doesn't it?

Not a performance

Not microphones and all that crap

But really something else

We've lost a lot of them

In the last two years

But we have remaining Monk, Miles

(Nina!)

I love you too

And of course, for those that we have left we are thankful

But we can't afford any more losses

Oh no, oh my God

They're shooting us down one by one

Don't forget that

Because they are

Killing us one by one

Well, all I have to say is that

Those of us who know how to protect those of us that we love

Stand by them and stay close to them

And I say that if there'd been a couple of more a little closer to Dr. King he wouldn't have got it

You know, really

Just a little closer to him, stay there, stay there

We can't afford any more losses

He had seen the mountaintop

And he knew he could not stop

Always living with the threat of death ahead

C'mon, sound

Folks, you'd better stop and think

For we're almost to the brink

What will happen now that the king of love is dead?

Thank you