From the recordings Sad music hits 1 and The Fields of Why
A soulful piano ballad starts with delicate, expressive piano chords, leaving space for raw, heart-wrenching vocals to shine. Subtle strings and warm bass join in as the emotion swells, with tasteful percussion entering for the final chorus, heightening the dramatic intensity before tapering off to a gentle close.
Lyrics
(Verse 1)
The sun used to climb over fields of gold
A story in the soil, a thousand winters old
The same wind whispered through the birch and pine
On both sides of a slowly-drawn line
We shared a river, a history's weave
More that united us than we could believe
But a shadow grew from a gilded throne
To carve up a home that was never its own.
(Chorus)
Oh, tell me why, beneath the same wide sky
Do mothers' sons for a tyrant's lie now die?
For a flag's new edge, for a history revised?
For the hollow pride in a madman's eyes?
These amber fields, this black earth cry
Beneath the burning rain from a poisoned sky.
(Verse 2)
Now the cobblestones remember the tread of the tank
A city of courage on a riverbank
A symphony of sirens in the dead of night
A people standing for their children's light
And in the rumble, a fragile tune
A sunflower pushing through the ruin
Defiant faces in a subway's gloom
A nation flowering in a living tomb.
(Chorus)
Oh, tell me why, beneath the same wide sky
Do mothers' sons for a tyrant's lie now die?
For a flag's new edge, for a history revised?
For the hollow pride in a madman's eyes?
These amber fields, this black earth cry
Beneath the burning rain from a poisoned sky.
(Bridge)
And the reason on the newsfeeds, cold and clear
Can't explain away the fundamental fear
That brothers, pawns in a deadly game,
Whisper the same, forgotten name...
It's not for faith, or for a holy call
Just the age-old, bitter greed of a wall
Built not to keep a danger out, but in
To cage the truth with the original sin.
(Guitar Solo - Melancholic, then defiant)
(Chorus - More powerful, with backing vocals)
Oh, tell me WHY, beneath the same wide sky!
Do mothers' sons for a tyrant's lie now die?!
For a flag's new edge, for a history revised?!
For the hollow pride in a madman's eyes?!
These amber fields, this black earth cry
Beneath the burning rain...
(Outro)
Why?
(Softly) For the ghosts in the wheat...
For the empty seat...
For a future, broken, incomplete...
No... there is no "why"...
Just a world asking... why?
(Fade out with a single, sustained piano note)