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THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'... STILL...

CURRENT NEWS INSPIRES A REWRITE BY TRIBES HILL ARTIST AND WEB MASTER JIM INFANTINO The Lonesome Death of Trayvon MartinMonday, July 15, 2013: adapted from the song the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol written in 1964 by Bob Dylan. Surprisingly little needed changing. Friday, July 19, 2013: James O'Brien inspired the rewrite of the refrain. This is a bold move and I would not have attempted without his encouragement. The original was "But you who philosophize, disgrace and criticize all fears, take the rag away from your face, now ain't the time for your tears." I have modernized it and brought the objects of this barb closer to most of us. I notice that Dylan went to pains to have a true double rhyme with "face" in the word "disgrace." I have not followed his example, and have used a not-really near-rhyme "restate." I hope you like it anyway. I play this with the guitar tuned down a whole step, and a half capo on the second fret over the A,D&G strings. 6/8 time. - Jim I. Sunday, July 21: final edits done now. Chords corrected. Video soon. - Jim

D                        Bm George Zimmerman killed young Trayvon Martin D                        Bm with a gun that he carried as a neighborhood watchman    Em                           G in a locked up and walled around compound in Sanford    Em                           G and the cops were called in and his weapon took from him D                            Bm as they rode him in custody down to the station D                                Bm and they let him go free without filing any charges          Em                         G while the blood of young Trayvon ran out of his body CHORUS:      G     A    D     Bm           G                 D But you who hypothesize, debate, and share everything with your peers G        F#m    Em Take your hands away from your face G               A             D            Bm Now ain’t the time for your tears George Zimmerman, who at twenty-eight years Patrolled in his car in the walled around compound Who's father was a magistrate judge from Virginia With rich wealthy parents to provide and protect him With high office relations in the politics of Florida Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders He had heard it before when he was accused of assaulting an officer or his former fiancee without filing a charge he was set free and walking CHORUS: But you who hypothesize, restate, and share everything with your peers Take your hands away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears Young Trayvon Martin was an A or B student He was 17 years old, and known to be cheerful Who was loved by his mother and father and brother who never had as much as a juvenile record who was trying to get home from visiting his father who was trying to get home, and carrying candy who would have gone home, if not for the gun in the hand of a man who had followed and stopped him who thought that young Trayvon was the wrong sort of person who tracked him and stalked him and confronted and shot him who had never done nothing to that neighborhood watchman CHORUS: But you who hypothesize, debate, and criticize with your peers Take your hands away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded her gavel To show that all’s equal and that the court’s on the level And that the strings and the books ain’t pulled and persuaded And that even the nobles get properly handled And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom Who was bound by the law in the great state of Florida And instructed the jury in a way most entangling so that no one among them could find the man guilty unless they knew for certain his true motive for certain in a state where murder's a matter of discretion so long as the killer says they thought they had been threatened let the gunman go free and without a correction and the gavel came down and the trial it was ended CHORUS: And you who hypothesize, restate, and share everything with your peers Lift up your hands now and bury your face Now is the time for your tears.