The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) Lyrics

Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war


There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
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Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

I joined just to comment on this song. As a Marine I share a bond with every other Marine past, present, and future. Luckily I discovered this song. It does a perfect job describing the inner conflict that many Marines feel after returning home. Marines do not want fame and adoration, we only want RESPECT! Ira Hayes was a hero to many Americans, but he knew, as all Marines know, that the only heroes are the ones who die in combat. The rest of us are just lucky enough to have called them brother.

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

I saw Flags of Our Fathers yesterday...sad that I've known this song for some years without ever really knowing the story of Ira Hayes.

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

Ira Hayes was the marine who went up Hirajima Hill in the famous picture with the marines holding up the flag...then when he went back home he died a drunk cus he was an indian and we were still a racist country

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

Jesus Christ....it's NOT HIRAJIMA it's "IWO JIMA", and it's NOT HIRAJIMA hill, it MOUNT SURABACHI, on which the flag was raised. You are correct Ira Hayes and five others raised the flag on the Mount, to show the end of Japanese control of the island. Only three survived Iwo Jima though. The picture was so loved by the public that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had the remaining three survivors of which Ira was one, shipped home to aid war bond drives. Ira Hayes though asked to be sent back to the front lines, stating that "sometimes I wish that guy had never made that picture". Yes America was racist against indians, but Ira Hayes didn't die because of racism. After the war Ira returned to his reservation, disillusion by what he felt to be unneccesary adoration. Ira became a drunk, because he could not handle, the fact that he had been made a hero just because of one photo. Ira died in 1955 of exposure...

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

I can't believe so few people have commented on Johnny Cash, while horrible bands like fall out boy are overflowed. It is a shame where American music has gone. Kids need to learn about the classics, instead of the garbage mtv force-feeds them.

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

It's a great song, need more be said.

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

A man who turns his back on his family, for a world he doesnt understand or can cope with. Turns to drink, dies alone.

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a United States Marine of Native American descent and survivor of World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima. He was one of six Marines, along with a US Navy corpsman, in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

After the war, Hayes attempted to lead an anonymous life. But it didn't turn out that way. "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima'?"

Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me." After the war, Hayes accumulated some fifty arrests for drunkenness.

On January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead near an abandoned hut close to his home on the Gila River Indian Reservation. He had been drinking and playing cards with several other men, including his brothers Kenny and Vernon, and another fellow Pima named Henry Setoyant. The coroner concluded that Hayes' death was due to exposure and too much alcohol. Ira Hayes was 32.

Hayes was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, fellow flag-raiser Rene Gagnon said of him: "Let's say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States."

http://tinyurl.com/r7s4k

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

I totally agree with you zmilla111

Cover art for The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Peter La Farge cover) lyrics by Johnny Cash

watch 'flags of our fathers' if you wanna see him