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Protest Songs

by Peter Hamm

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1.
intro 00:47
2.
go free 05:33
©2016 Peter J. Hamm (06-13-16) I woke in the dark as the morning star, winking its goodbye to let the glow in the east come and splinter the night into a thousand little pieces into orange and golden glow on the mountain peaks Dancing with my hope down the walls of rock and ice and snow And the day cried its greeting and my heart woke from slumber And this voice in the woods stopped and whispered so strangely “What are you looking for?” If you can't see the face smiling through the morning trees If you can't hear the voice crying on the wind If you can't feel the offering of grace lifted in the early breeze Let go of this confusion just let this moment in If you can't see the hand of God dancing in the mystery If you don’t see the plan, it wears no disguise. If you won’t see past hunger and war, and all the rage of history Won’t you open up your soul You can see with new eyes. If you don’t step past reason alone how can love ever live in you? If you can’t find the Ghost in the night how will you ever see? If you won’t read the autograph of love written in the morning dew? Won’t you let go of these chains Go free
3.
vegas 02:38
© 2016 Peter J. Hamm Touched down like a seabird on an ocean of brown It was an ocean of sand, a great wide sea of desert sand The airport laid out next to the mirage of light and sound It seemed designed with constant and immediate escape at hand In Vegas Vegas, Las Vegas It took billions of years for man to finally get clean To be master of the planet, of destiny & Science And now we shove money in the mouth of the machine A thieving smirking scheming stealing bright one-armed appliance Saw a plainclothes Elvis, It was so surreal Fighting over money, over money with his wife She looked just like Priscilla, is that part of the deal? Is it part of the act, is it part of the life? I walked into the lounge… Buzzes beeps and flashes in my eyes it’s just like morning When you wake up from just staring with a wide eye at the ceiling I’ve lost the will to fight, I have lost the smell of warning There is no wrong no right and I have lost all sense of feeling
4.
goodbye 05:13
©2016 Peter J. Hamm (2016-02-17) I remember the first time my daddy didn’t know my name It surprised me just a little, gave me just a little pain You can laugh, you can cry, though I can’t tell you why It’s such a long hard way to say goodbye I will always remember you, racing me to the car I can picture that smile, to me that’s everything you are. Add some tears in your eyes, shaming the hearts of the wise Such a long hard way to say “goodbye” You can shout at the sky, you can scream at the sun Protest all you want, but the damage is done Gravity will pull you down, no matter how hard you try And at the end all you can do is say “goodbye” There’s a love that comes from heaven Your life showed that to me There’s grace in every heartbreak And a good father’s love that set me free Everything in me that’s good, is what I could see in your eyes But it’s a long hard way to say “goodbye” There is a peace that comes through grieving There is a joy that grows from pain Like the sunrise that governs the morning After night watches ruled by rain And wherever life might take me Crushing me down or lifting me high It’s a long hard way to say “goodbye”
5.
©2016 Peter J. Hamm The end of the trail looms like Notre Dame Over the strong and the frail, and both I see I am The end of the road in the way like the heat Touches the load, rises up from the street. Here in the night, brighter than sun The moon mocks my sight and strength all as one The innocence that lies to the stars The silence of age, can’t run very far My eyes have been blocked up Like trapped abandoned children In the blood of dirt and clay The earth gives up her plight And calls to the sea Come down here and rescue me Come down and rescue me The intimate hold I have on love and hate The loss of the soul, this hunger we create Oh, the dead are all here, to finally ask “Who was the first? Who is the last? My eyes like the mountains see the hilltops but the valley Must wait till all is free From night that tears the smiles From the heartless Come down here and rescue me Come down and rescue me
6.
i can hope 03:23
©2016 Peter J. Hamm (summer 2007) You ran away like a freight train running, tearing Speeding on down the track You said nothing but the look on your face Said that you would never ever come back And as I watched you from a distance I could still pick out your fragrance But I lost it on a cold cold wind. I can hope, I can pray I can dream that someday You’ll come back my way If you run back to me I will make you happy Just you wait and see You’ll come back to me Walkin’ round the city in the bright lights I remember nights when we’d paint the town Funny how the little things become the big things Now that I don’t have you ‘round And I miss you and my heart aches I got the sleepless nights and cold shakes But I’m never gonna give up now
7.
©2016 Peter J. Hamm (07-26-16) / for my wife, Kathleen It seems like only yesterday sometimes The first time I saw that sparkle in your eyes Then waiting just to see, if you’d wanna be with me, then yes… It seemed sometimes tomorrow would never come Hearts raised to the sky, then sunk like a stone. But sitting by your side, it’s all been worth the fight I’m sure Every time I spy that smile in your eyes It fills up my heart with that same old energy. Every time I see you looking back at me I catch another glimpse of my favorite memory. We knew that the road would twist and turn Some days our hearts would warm, and some nights they would burn But as long as I’m with you, there’s nothing that can do us harm Thirty years will surely try our souls And the bones that once were limber now some days feel old But as long as you are here, there’s nothing that I fear at all Hold on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride Hold on, it’ll be scary, it’ll be fun Hold on, ‘cause I will never leave your side
8.
©2016 Peter J. Hamm (08-21-15 and 07-18-16) I heard your same old symphony on the way to work today Cackling in the words tumbling out and in the sick games you play Twisted lives and buried hearts in heaps of ruin by the road And the air is heavy and weighed down with fear and anger overload I heard despair on the wind, howling like the mother of a dying child I felt disenchantment and disease, screaming in the wild I saw hate dressed up as love, it was on parade for everyone to see I smelled judgment and decay, and it got all over me Then your fated instruments, spilling across the midnight sky. I knew the words by heart because no matter how hard you try It’s the same unbending ignorance that kept the slaves from getting free It’s the same ruthless abandon that distorts every seed and flower and tree And when you told me I was lost to you, I couldn’t wait to leave Cries of love pitched tattered tent hid behind belief At what point do the words of life become something your fear commands That’s when I figured out your heart will never understand I’m all done with you I don’t know what we’re fighting for We aren’t talking anymore I’m so sick of this stupid war We won’t be talking anymore
9.
together 03:02
©2016 Peter J. Hamm There’s too much pain, and way too much space In a mother’s eyes, in a baby’s face Hope flies off without a trace In a world that just can find no grace But you can curse the darkness or you can light it up You can live alone in hurt or you can walk with me in love Cause you and me, we hold the key I’m better off with you and you are better off with me We’re all in this together We’re get to love like this forever The whole world’s so much better When we’re all in this together I’m no good all on my own Helpless with no way to do this alone But take my hand, work with me We’ll change the world, I promise you’ll see In the middle of my human heart I got find that missing part Or I’m just hanging in the wind When I finally grab your hand I see That missing piece of eternity You bring out the best in me You and me find out the best we can be We’re all in this together In the calm or stormy weather The whole world’s so much better when we’re all in this together

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All songs ©2016 Peter J. Hamm

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released September 6, 2016

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Peter Hamm Ohio

Pastor, worship leader and songwriter currently in the Cincinnati suburbs. I write weird songs, but that's good... right...?

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