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Simon and Garfunkel – El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could) Lyrics 13 years ago
Of course we'd all choose to be the instrument of freedom, but the song's clearly about someone who is NOT those things (hammer, sparrow, forest). The refrain asserts this several times:

Yes I would,
If I could,
I surely would.
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The "Away, I'd rather sail away/Like a swan that's here and gone" is about transcendence and the longing to escape an oppressive circumstance; it's a common sentiment among the powerless, whether political or emotional.

"The man tied up to the ground/He gives the world/it's saddest sound" is the singer's reality and a lament for what he is not and will never be (hammer, sparrow, forest).

Just my interpretation, of course.

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