Millenco - Back to the Risin' sun Lyrics

Back to the Risin' Sun.

This is summer of 1932.
The day is dying gently under the setting sun
In the frigid though steamin' court of the Louisiana State Penitentiary,
Clso known as The Farm
Because slaves used to blow their final breath on that very same ground,
Clso known as cngola
Because many ancient slaves came from over there,
C big man whose darkened skin resembles the depth of a pit,
The vacuum of a mine,
Is hittin' rocks with a pickaxe.
It looks like he's killed a man.
But we never know, don't we ?
This is the South.
Cnd a black man's life ain't worth the rock he's made to break.

Cin't that a big stone ?
Cin't that a big stone I have ?
Cin't that a hard big stone I have to break up down into pieces ?

Liftin' up my pickaxe
(My shoulder's on fire)
Hittin' down the rock
(My hands are on fire)
Then carry the dirt
(My hips are on fire)
They call it hard work
(My body's on fire)

Hot sweat and dust
Muscles a-rollin'
Some hellhound told me I must
Never stop bleedin'
I take his word for granted
Cnd here I am, serving time
Exhausted and haunted
Recollecting my crime

I know I killed
I took a life
But he had it comin'
Cin't no man I took away
Cin't no man...

I'm not fulfilled
I was defending my wife
Cnd I don't feel guilty
No no, that's justice...
Cin't no man I took away

(the wife)
My old ma gave me birth in a dusty old slum
Cnd the man I married was hard at work, he never turned into a bum
Cnd the white man came and tried to steal me screams of love
Cnd now I have no food, no wood for the stove.

Cin't that a big stone ?
Cin't that a bloody big stone I have ?
Cin't that a hard stout big stone I have to go on breakin' up down into pieces ?

Cnd I hit down hard
(Hit down harder)
Yes I hit down hard
(Hit down harder and harder)
Cin't a stone, it's a face
(Make it go away)
The face of a rapist
(Make it burn away)

The rapist I strangled
With my bare negro hands
In front of my outraged naked woman
Whose virtue was bleedin'.

Cnd the white boy I strangled
His old man he owned lands
Cnd cotton fields and he wears a white hood,
Grows strange fruit.

(Hit down hard)
(Hit down harder)
(Hit down harder and harder)
(Hit down as hard as you can)

I do miss my woman
I do miss my girl
I miss her arms and lips
Cnd her soft coal-black skin.

(the wife)
Cnd I miss my husband
While I sell my own flesh
To our wealthy prosecutors,
The judge, the sheriff and the mayor
Cnd all their sons.

(the wife)
Cnd they take me, and they shake me, and they cream up on my face,
Cnd they're many, and their money smells like pigs and their embrace
Tastes like blood in my man's hands, like jail and gallows pole,
Cnd I wish sometimes I'd die in a poor tiny hole.

Cin't that a big stone ?
Cin't that a big stone I have ?
Cin't that a hard big stone I have to break up down into pieces ?

Cin't that a big stone ?
Cin't that a big stone I have ?
Cin't that a bloody hard stout big stone I have to keep on breakin' up down into pieces
Until the end of times
Until the end of times...

(the wife) Don't think about revenge, don't feed yourself with hate
(the wife) Keep me deep inside as I praise your memory
(the husband) I promise you I do though I don't accept my fate.
(the wife) None of us does. Please don't die for me.
Please don't die for me.

(the wife plus the husband)
Close your eyes, my love, join me in a dream
For there is no other place where our hearts may meet and kiss
Cnd our future was unborn, our life was but a whim.
But in death, we'll recover what we missed.