Mr. Merry cries in his coffin
For days he says he can remember
And through the town the pallbearers sing old songs
Of a beautiful purple mountain
From every walk of life we've come to see the last great American

May I now present you the speaker,
"Friends he was a man of men, a man of gold:
He had a how do you say, ethical like sense"
That's when the President started to giggle
And the children gave the blessing
Though the service weren't half done
Each of them sued the other one
For the last great American

Merry reaches up, we bow our heads
He pulls the lid on down and his stone is read

Here lies our Merry

The man with the heart so spent

That in this day and age

Is sick of living

And judges argue letters
Fabric comes undone
For every daughter every son
Of the last great American

For every daughter every son
Of the last great American


Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings

The Last Great American Lyrics as written by John Ondrasik

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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The Last Great American song meanings
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4 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    Great song, this is the original version of it. The song is pretty self explanatory I think. If the Founder Fathers saw what we were putting up with today, they'd be rolling over in their graves.

    deshlemanon December 23, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song always gets me choked up. it's just so beautiful, and so sad. i mean, he's choosing death, cuz he's just sick of living. it's just a message that this world isn't good enough for some people.

    johnkwolfeon January 09, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    What a meaningful song, and so beautifully crafted. I just love it. Especially right now, I've been thinking so much lately because of recent events about how horrible humanity can be and how it's so sad what kind of a place the world is sometimes. I think this song is, simply put, an eloquent call to everyone to realize what's happening in the world and realize that it's up to us to make it better.

    semper_eademon January 26, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Does this song remind anyone else of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"? It sounds like a man with good intentions who ran up into a corrupt system and ran himself to death trying to work around it. His death revealed to those others just how wicked they actually were.

    StatusQuoExileon July 18, 2008   Link

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