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