Title: Only a Pawn in Their Game (Lincoln Memorial, March on Washington, 8-28-63)
Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: 50th Anniversary Collection: 1963 (Track #6)
Duration: 03:21
Label:
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.
A South politician preaches to the poor white man,
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain.
You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks,
And the hoof beats pound in his brain.
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught.
They lowered him down as a king.
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.
The 50th Anniversary Collection 1963 is the second Bob Dylan collection released by Sony Music to prevent the recordings from legally entering the public domain in Europe. Released on vinyl only in November 2013 only 100 copies of the six-LP set were produced.
Track listing
LP 1 Side A
Eternal Circle (Take 4)
Percys Song (Take 1)
Thats All Right, Mama/Sally Free and Easy (Take 1)
Hero Blues (Take 3)
East Laredo Blues (Take 1)
Bob Dylans New Orleans Rag (Take 2)
tracks 1 & 4 recorded 12 August 1963, tracks 2, 3 & 5 recorded 23 October, track 6 recorded 24 October during The Times They Are a-Changin sessions
LP 1 Side B The Banjo Tape
Lonesome River Edge
Back Door Blues
Bob Dylans Dream
You Can Get Her
Farewell
All Over You
Instrumental in Gerdes Basement/Jam
Keep Your Hands Off Her (Leadbelly)
Honey Babe
Goin Back To Rome
Stealin'
all tracks recorded 2 August 1963 at the Basement of Gerdes Folk City. Tracks 7, 9, 12 with Happy Traum, track 12 with Gil Turner
LP 2 Side C
Ballad of Hollis Brown
recorded for the Folk Songs and More Folk Songs TV Special, 3 March 1963
Girl from the North Country
Only A Hobo
tracks 2 & 3 recorded for the Oscar Brand Show/World of Folk Music, March 1963
Ramblin Down Through the World
Bob Dylans Dream
Talkin New York
Hiding Too Long
LP 2 Side D
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Walls of Red Wing
All Over You
Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues
Boots of Spanish Leather
LP 3 Side E
Hero Blues
John Brown
A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall
Dusty Old Fairgrounds
Who Killed Davey Moore?
LP 3 Side F
Seven Curses
Highway 51?
Pretty Peggy-O
Bob Dylans New Orleans Rag
Dont Think Twice, Its All Right
With God On Our Side
tracks 47, side C and sides D-F recorded at the Town Hall, New York City, 12 April 1963
LP 4 Side G
James Alley Blues
Long Time Gone
Only a Hobo
Untitled Blues Jam
A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall
tracks 15 recorded at the home of Eve and Mac McKenzie, 18 April 1963
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues
LP 4 Side H
Bob Dylans Dream
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Talkin World War III Blues
A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall
With God on Our Side
tracks 67, side G and side H recorded at The Bear folk club, Chicago, 25 April 1963
LP 5 Side I
Farewell
A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall
Bob Dylans Dream
Boots of Spanish Leather
John Brown
LP 5 Side J
Who Killed Davey Moore?
Blowin in the Wind
Tracks 1 & 2, side J recorded for the Studs Terkel Wax Museum radio show, Chicago, 26 April 1963
Blowin in the Wind
Only a Pawn in Their Game
tracks 3 & 4 recorded for the Songs of Freedom TV show, New York City, 30 July 1963
When the Ship Comes In
Only a Pawn in Their Game
tracks 5 & 6 recorded at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, 28 August 1963. Track 5 with Joan Baez
LP 6 Side K
Blowin in the Wind
Percys Song
Seven Curses
Walls of Red Wing
LP 6 Side L
Talkin World War III Blues
Dont Think Twice, Its All Right
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Masters of War
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
sides K & L recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York City, 26 October 1963