Land Thief
written by Barron Brady
I’m sat here in the sun my dogs playing in the yard
A magpie dancing round and round and driving them both mad
In wild frustration they turn and leave their bone
So the magpie sneaks behind and robs it for his own
I brought in my cows for the very last time that e'en
But when I went outside I saw the plough destroy our green
So I came to the New World for a dollar an acre land
My father’s robbed by parliament against the common law
chorus
Thanks to the lord I found a home by his great hand
I tell him we intend no harm in farming an acre of land
I follow rivers flowing New York to Idaho
The plane is sere and the valley is void, we’re seeking the endless soil
Accustomed to the scent of leaves to home I cast an eye
This local savour on the breeze has no taste or tie
Over the Rockies from 1812 behind Jim Briger on the Beaver trail
Prairies black where the buffalo thronged into the black soil of Oregon
chorus
The prairies were their church ours was cold as iron
By the pretty green where we grazed our kine
Jackson gave his word they’ll forever hold the west
I pray they’ll make a home there and the lies are finished with
I was tricked out of land my independence gone
Many was made a pauper then the whiskey poured her charms
chorus
One e'en I saw an Indian praying after a kill
In the sunset light where the buffullo blood was spilled
Maple and sumac evoke the woods of home
But unfamiliarity recalls the dream has gone
I’m sat here in the sun my dogs playing in the yard
A magpie dancing round and round and driving them both mad
With lies and litigation they’re forced to leave their home
So the magpie creeps behind and robs it for his own.
chorus