Spitting Image

we hung out in Bill’s garage
to smoke pot and dig some tunes
drop acid and get crazy
and maybe howl at the moon
Bill was an Air Force vet
we were trying to avoid the draft
everybody got along just fine
and everybody laughed

I played guitar in Jonah’s Whale
out by San Jose State
time didn’t have any dimension then
it was always gettin’ late
there was a military danger
up in everybody’s face
and if you wanted to get it off your chest
the Whale was the place

we were all in it together
together on the run
like the fingers of a fist
we’d only just begun

they had demos out in Berkeley
there were riot cops and gas
the numbers were uncountable
things were movin’ fast
we could tell the enemy
by the menace in his eyes
the enemy was in the Pentagon
not the GIs

there were marches back in Washington
a hundred thousand strong
VVAW threw their medals
on the White House lawn
they were shoulder to shoulder
with the long haired anti war
like brothers and sisters
they knew what they were there for

we were all in it together
together on the move
like the fingers of a fist
we were bound to improve

then sometime in the 80s
when Reagan was on the scene
they conjured up a demon
that would infiltrate your dreams
a hippy girl, anti-war
with a great big gob of spit
and they put her in the airport
of your mind and that was it

there was Rambo in the movies
and recruiters in the schools
real patriots enlisted
the others were traitors and fools
and that spitting hippie girl
well I’ll you what
they just made
that up

and we were kinda scattered
there were miles in between
but like the fingers of a fist
we were bound to reconvene
they say war is good for nothin’
I say that’s not right
war is good for makin’ money
an imperial delight
it will realign the power grids
and polish up a crown
but without popular support
war will never get off the ground

against all external enemies
and enemies inside
soldiers in about-face
who dare to turn the tide
that’s a dangerous reality
it has to be erased
so the spitting image
was put up in it’s place

but don’t you believe it
it’s intentional deceit
it’s to make you doubt yourself
and back off from the heat
we need each other now
just like we did back then
and just like we
will again

we are all in it together
after all what’s said and done
like the fingers of a fist
we will never come undone