Ragged Old Flag
(Johnny Cash)
I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench, an old man was sittin there.
I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said "Your old flag pole has leaned a little bit,
And that’s a ragged old flag you got hanging on it."
He said "have a seat", and I sat down,
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said "I don’t like to brag,
But we’re kinda proud of "That Ragged Old Flag."
"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night that Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it, writing 'Oh Say Can You See'.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans,
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams."
"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on tho.
She got cut with a sword in Chancellorsville,
And She got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on "That Ragged Old Flag".
"On Flanders Field in World War I,
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low a time or two.
She was in Korea, Vietnam,
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam."
"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving back here at home.
In her own good land here she's been abused,
She's been burned, dishonored, denied, refused."
"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and she's wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."
"So we raise her up every morning,
We take her down every night.
We don’t let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag,
'Cause I’m mighty proud of "That Ragged Old Flag".
