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It was free

Composer(s)
Live recording from an evening at Caux summer 1980

The performers are people who were at the world assembly at Caux at that point. It was a "one-off" occasion.

Lyrics

In the years that lie ahead in time when we have gone our way
what will future generations say of us today?
"They built their castle big and they made their buildings tall"
or could our children say of us what mattered most of all:

They knew how to serve and share and life was so free and fair
Families together, man and wife who never wanted to part.
They just lived the way they wanted the world to live
Not demanding to get what they could but only to give
And the millions flocked to their door,
wanting to know, wanting to learn, wanting to buy
but it was free.

In the dream I looked ahead in time to a far off distant scene
A land where all the pain and war and hunger once had been
I heard some children calling out, their eyes so bright and free
"Though we were poor, what your fathers gave restored our dignity".

They knew how to serve and share and life was so free and fair
Families together, man and wife who never wanted to part.
They just lived the way they wanted the world to live
Not demanding to get what they could but only to give
And the millions flocked to their door,
wanting to know, wanting to learn, wanting to buy
but it was free.

Now in time we face the years ahead, What will the prospects be?
People struggling on in life, Or people who are free?
Is there but one nation that history will record
gave the world a way to live that all men could afford?

They knew how to serve and share and life was so free and fair
Families together, man and wife who never wanted to part.
They just lived the way they wanted the world to live
Not demanding to get what they could but only to give
And the millions flocked to their door,
wanting to know, wanting to learn, wanting to buy
but it was free....

And it's still free.

Music type
Lyricist
Year
1980
Publishing permission
Granted
Publishing permission refers to the rights of FANW to publish the recording of this piece of music on this website.
Music type
Lyricist
Year
1980
Publishing permission
Granted
Publishing permission refers to the rights of FANW to publish the recording of this piece of music on this website.