Track 06
Promised Land
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Promised Land
A kind of folky ballad...
I wrote this on the TransSiberian railway - thinking of the vast distances across Siberia and how and why people might have ended up living there - but I guess it applies to any migration situation...
words and music by Martin Stirrup 2018
ROR 06 Promised Land
Am E7
They trudged across the borders or ploughed the mighty waves
Dm Am E7
Some to untold fortune, some to early graves
C G C G
Searching for a better life a place to make a stand
Em Am G Am
Searching for salvation in some promised land
F C F C
Looking to our past now as history is viewed
G7 Am
With gods and kings and all that brings the story it gets skewed
F C F C
But see it from the distance, watch the ebb and flow
Dm Am (E7 verse2 )
Of humanity’s migration spreading out below
It hasn’t taken much time 50 thousand years or so
To head on out of Africa and spread around the globe
With growing population on an exponential rise
New land for tribe or family became the prize.
Repeat chorus
It wasn’t always easy, frontier life is rough
Taming virgin wilderness’s a calling for the tough
Building better futures, through hardship won
For the generations still to come.
For some the lust for fortune or gold was the appeal
Others were driven on by deep religious zeal
Or forced by persecution, for safety on to roam
Or herded on to exile from their homes
So whatever be your station, wherever you may stay
Spare a thought for those who came before to pave the way
Those through whose sweat and toil your course of life was planned
Sitting there in comfort in your promised land.