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The Family of Man

by Karl Dallas

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1.
I belong to a family, it’s the greatest on earth; A new one every day is coming to birth. My name isn’t Johnny, or Jimmy, or Joan. It’s a name everyone can be proud we own. It’s the family of man, keeps growing, The family of man – keep sowing The seeds of a new life every day. I’ve got a sister in Sydney, a brother in Paree, The whole wide world is dad and mother to me. Wherever you go you will find my kin, Whatever the creed or the colour of the skin, They’re the family of man . . . (etc) From Afghanistan to the streets of New York, Don’t matter how you worship or how you talk. We’ve all got a life and others to share it: Let’s bridge the oceans and declare it The family of man . . . (etc) From the North Pole ice to the steamy equator We’ve all got to live together sooner or later, But I’ve not much time, I’ve had my fill Of the men of war who want to kill The family of man . . . (etc) Now some people say the world is a terrible place, But it’s just as good or bad as the human race: War and misery or peace and joy We can build or can destroy The family of man . . . (etc) © Copyright 1953-2010 Karl Dallas/EMI Music
2.
Children are playing round the gates of the Al-Ameriya shelter People are praying by the hole where the laser bomb came through There are bloody burnt shadows from the bodies that melted A monument demands to know what we will do But the children are playing with untroubled eyes Dead women and children are resting in Paradise The killers are sleeping secure in their beds And the whole world is crying, remembering our dead. On a February night in Nineteen-ninetyone The people took refuge from United States bombs Reconnaissance planes had pin-pointed the target And now we stand silent, we shall never forget But the children are playing with untroubled eyes Dead women and children are resting in Paradise The killers are sleeping secure in their beds And the whole world is crying, remembering our dead. The first bomb penetrated the thick concrete bunker And the steel doors crashed shut with a noise like thunder The fire-bomb followed and it burnt up the air: Inside the shelter four hundred died there Oh-oh-h, the dead of the Al-Ameria shelter Oh-oh-h, no use to weep and to mourn Oh-oh-h, don't pretend you are helpless Oh-oh-h, we must fight for those yet unborn This wasn't an accident, a by-product of war But deliberate terror, carefully planned and what's more Each one who died was a victim of murder And the guilt are planning worse crimes in our name But the children are playing with untroubled eyes Dead women and children are resting in Paradise The killers are sleeping secure in their beds And the whole world is crying, remembering our dead. The youngest to die was just forty days young A woman seventy-five, all her days had been sung Each one a life precious, with lives left to live Cut off in their prime; how can we forgive? But the children are playing with untroubled eyes Dead women and children are resting in Paradise The killers are sleeping secure in their beds And the whole world is crying, remembering our dead. All we who remain have a duty to try Not only to stop bombs that fall from the sky It's life and life only we stand to defend Remembering the dead and their bitter end But the children are playing with untroubled eyes Dead women and children are resting in Paradise The killers are sleeping secure in their beds And the whole world is crying, remembering our dead. Oh-oh-h, the dead of the Al-Ameria shelter Oh-oh-h, no use to weep and to mourn Oh-oh-h, don't pretend you are helpless Oh-oh-h, we must fight for those yet unborn

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Cover picture shows Karl Dallas singing to street kids in Baghdad, Iraq, just before the Anglo-American invasion in 2003.

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released August 25, 2012

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Karl Dallas Bradford, UK

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