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Gather 'Round the Stone Lyrics
You're too young to know
That you're too young to go
There's no freedom to be found
Lying face up in the ground
Ashes from an unfinished life
Are all that's left
In a tear-drop-shaped locket
Hanging from his mother's chest
You whip the back of freedom
'Till it bleeds an oil stream
Then you sail down upon it
In your killing machine
Old men who send children
Off to die in vain
They will hear death's constant whisper
Call remember my name
Gather 'round the stone
That you're too young to go
There's no freedom to be found
Lying face up in the ground
Are all that's left
In a tear-drop-shaped locket
Hanging from his mother's chest
'Till it bleeds an oil stream
Then you sail down upon it
In your killing machine
Off to die in vain
They will hear death's constant whisper
Call remember my name
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Missed the chorus:
I said hey hey hey hey gather round the stone hey hey hey hey gather round the stone
Song's about the U.S. misguided war in Iraq
gather 'round the stone i think means a funeral (tear-drop-shaped locket") , i.e the stone = tombstone. He feels as though the war is wrong, the kids are too young to go off to war and die. Definately iraq- "oil stream"
yeah i think the grave is the grave of a fallen sodier in Iraq...and it is deffinately about war especially when the millitary drummer boy beat comes in...my favorite part
I saw Ben explain this song on a show called Live at Rehearsal Hall from Canada. He said he read an article about a lady who's son was killed in the war and she never got a true and worthwhile answer from the government. They just kept saying he died for freedom, hence the lyric "there's no freedom to be found lying face up in the ground." The mother put her son's ashes into tear drop-shaped lockets and gave them to family and loved ones. This obviously affected Ben so much that he wrote about it, and I truly admire everything he does. On a side note, this song is very reminiscent of "Masters of War" which I saw Ben and Tom Morello perform together!
If you watch Ben Harper perform this song on the Henry Rollins show he explains exactly what the song means.
the tear shaped locket is just that. The family decided to have their son cremated and put into these tiny lockets that looked like tears. Its a very very sad story.