From the recording Tall Ships
I have this memory of Jackie Kennedy, dressed in pink, riding in that convertible through Dallas. The rest came from that....Martin Luther King, the Kinshasa Highway where AIDS leapt from one species to another....all the TV preachers yelling and waving the flag, all of that. Martin Lee Anderson, 14 years old, was beaten down by seven full-grown officers at a youth boot camp in Bay County, Florida, and when he died, the medical examiner found his death had been caused by sickle cell trait. Mercy.
Lyrics
Jackie wore a pink pill box
And she smiled in the Texas sun
She watched As her man got killed
By strangers with guns
And she cried Mercy
Oh, mercy
Martin was a preacher
He saw the Promised Land
But like Moses in the bible
It stayed just out of the reach
Of his dying hands
And he cried mercy
The world cried mercy
Far from Birmingham
Mercy
On the long Kinshasa Highway
Death came with a kiss
It wrapped its wings
Around the world 'said,
'Are you ready for this?
It's the end of mercy
There is no mercy'
Preachers screaming hate
From the pulpit
Waving flags of war
It makes you wonder
What Jesus died for
If not for mercy
Where is mercy?
Martin Lee was 14 years
When they dragged him into Hell
We saw grown men
Beat him down
Then they said he died From sickle cell
Mercy
Lord, have mercy
Here we are standing
On the brink
While the world
Goes up in flames
Little children
With their heads bowed down
Playing video games
They've never seen mercy
They don't know mercy
You can't order it online
You can't get it at the store
You can't even use it
If you don't know what it's for
It's mercy
Oh, mercy
Jackie wore a pink pill box
And she smiled In the Texas sun
Mercy