no retreat, baby, no surrender

Listening to my iPod this morning, I got an adrenaline rush from some of the lyrics to ”No Retreat, No Surrender.”

‘Cause we made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There’s a war outside still raging
You say it ain’t ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath
Peaceful skies in my lover’s bed
With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head

Once we made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in a stormy night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Googling the lyrics, I came upon a little speech Bruce made as he campaigned for John Kerry in October 2004:

 I think the human principles of economic justice — just healing the sick, health care, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, a living wage so folks don’t have to break their backs and still not make ends meet, the protection of our environment, a sane and responsible foreign policy, civil rights and the protection and safeguarding of our precious democracy here at home — I believe that Senator Kerry honors these ideals.

So let’s roll up our sleeves. That’s why I’m here today, to stand alongside Senator Kerry and to tell you that the country we carry in our hearts is waiting. And together we can move America towards her deepest ideals. And besides, we had a sax player in the [White] House — we need a guitar player in the White House.

Alright — this is for John. This is for you, John.

[Bruce launches into No Retreat, No Surrender]

Funny thing about those lyrics, though: Bruce sanitized them and made them safe for anti-war Democrats.

There’s a ”war outside still raging”? What war? There’s no war here.

We made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
But it’s good to see your smiling face and to hear your voice again
We could sleep in the twilight by the river side
With a wide open country in our hearts
And these romantic dreams in our heads

We made a promise…  

Fuck you, Bruce.

They say there’s a war outside still ragin’ and they say it ain’t ours anymore to win.

No retreat, baby. And no fucking surrender.