Johnny Cash - RAGGED OLD FLAG lyrics

rate me

I walked through a country court house square

On a park bench an old man was sitting there

I said, "Your court house is kinda run down"

He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town"

I said, "Your flag pole has a leaned a little bit

And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it"

He said, "Have a seat" and I sat down

"Is this the first time you've been in our little town?"

I said, "I think it is," he said "I don't like to brag

But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag

You see, we got a little hole in that flag there

When Washington took it across the Delaware

And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key

Sat watchin' it writing 'Say Can You See'

And it got a bad rip in New Orleans

With Packinham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams

And it almost fell at the Alamo

Beside the Texas flag but she waved on through

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville

And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill

There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg

And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag

On Flanders Field in World War I

She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun

She turned blood red in World War II

She hung limp and low by the time it was through

She was in Korea and Vietnam

She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam

Native Americans, brown, yellow and white

All shed red blood for the Stars and Stripes

In her own good land here she's been abused

She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused

And the government for which she stands

Has been scandalized throughout the land

And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin

But she's in good shape for the shape she's in

Cause she's been through the fire before

And I believe she can take a whole lot more

So we raise her up every morning, take her down every night

We don't let her touch the ground and fold her up right

On second thought I do like to brag

Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."