PatriotMusic.com: Music: Well-Earned

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Well-Earned ©2003, M. Fitzgibbons

In '76 with a stroke of a pen,
Jefferson declared the rights of all men:
That God made us free, and that Government serves
to protect all the rights that each soul deserves.

In '78 under cold winter skies
The troops were aware they were out of supplies.
With the food all but gone and no shoes on their feet,
They would fight till the end, till the British defeat.

Then the Bill of Rights stated what they'd earned.
And the lesson that hurt was well-learned.

For two hundred years, so many have died
So we could be free and remember with pride.
We've come a long way, and that paper is old
but the meaning is clear to all who are told.

And with the Bill of Rights wounded in the field
an American soul must not yield.

And the freedom we keep must be earned,
cause the lesson that hurts, is well-learned.

Inspiration

This is one of my rare songs that I actually set out to write. In many respects, this is the song that inspired the whole idea of Patriot and PatriotMusic.com, though I had no idea at the time. I wanted something simple enough musically to play around campfires that would draw the parallel between the individual souls that gave everything for United States' birth, and those that continue to keep us free today. The double entendre of Well-Learned was not originally planned while I was writing it. Like so many things, it just happened..

Side note: I wasn't at all sure how to get the vibrato effect on the harmonica, but I suddenly knew when I saw Jason doing it on the DVD of the first season of the Waltons.

Matt Fitzgibbons