In Memoriam

He's a ruthless opportunist

And he motivates by greed

He's just the way his father was

And that we sure don't need

So they all cried out destroy him

For he wants to see us drowned

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Now some had stood for hours

And some sat on the grass

Listening to their radios

For where the train had passed

And a crowd will get impatient

As the clock hands turn around

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

They handed out some candles

To the somber weary crowd

And told us not to light them

Till our eyes beheld the shroud

Not even at that moment

Could there be tranquility

I could feel them push and argue

Hey, sit down, I cannot see

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

When the fathers closed their bibles

And the family left the site

The ropes and walls and hedges

Kind of faded in the night

Replaced by all the people

Who made a prayerful sound

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Some people say the eighth of June

But the morning of the ninth

The workmen gently lowered him

By the beam of three work lights

Easy, take it easy

Set him down real slow

He'd been on some rougher trips

But he couldn't tell them so

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Now no man has the answers

And he was just a man

And yet I can't help feelin'

That he knew a better plan

A shorter road to justice

On the trip that's freedom bound

But they never understood him

So they put him in the ground