COMPOSER-SONGWRITER
 
Silent Tree Music - Song Lyrics 

( Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination song lyrics )
KING'S RANSOM
( LONELY DAY IN MEMPHIS )
Copyright © 2007 - mickterry.com

1: What else could I do? Just a kid not quite eleven,
playing in the next room as these men sealed the doom
of someone that I didn't know.
Should've gotten more clues, but I was way too scared & threatened.
What they were saying was bad, but it still was my Dad
who was hosting this little show.

2: What else could I do? I had sent the cops a letter
saying there was a plan to be killing some man
named- King in- Memphis town.
The FBI knew, all the way up to J. Edgar.
But they sat on their guns and they let- the one
get- through who would take him down.

CHORUS:
There was a king's ransom, a huge price on his head.
One big enough that any green-toothed cracker
would make sure he was dead.
There was a king's ransom & they looked the other way.
It was a lonely day in Memphis for the King & James Earl Ray.

3: What else could I do? Put myself in yet more danger?
For my father's friends, it would mean- my end
if they found out just what I did.
What was I out to prove? Could I save a total stranger?
Was I honoring Mom who'd taught me hatred was wrong
no matter what color of the skin?
CHORUS:

BRIDGE:
A lonely day in Memphis,
it's not all black and white.
A lonely day in Memphis,
and for days fires would darken the nights.

4: What else could I do? Did I make it any better?
Uncle Loyd and Raoul- had them all nearly fooled
and the rest disappeared from town.
The FBI knew, all the way up to J. Edgar.
But they sat on their guns and they let- the ones
get- through who would take King down.
CHORUS:

Copyright © 2007  MICK TERRY  Silent Tree Music  All rights reserved
[ Reprinted here by permission of the composer-lyricist ]   BMI
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8-28-08
Barak Obama speech on 45th anniversary of MLK "I Have a Dream".

4-4-08
50th anniversary of assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1-15-07
Written on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
With King under surveillance by FBI & police, officials were aware
of a contract out on King & an assassination attempt to be made
in Memphis, but did nothing to stop it  (4-4-68).
That James Earl Ray was the sole assassin of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is still contested.
Ray recanted his guilty plea, implicating "Raoul".
Witnesses implicated Loyd Jowers, Frank Liberto, police,
Army Intel & Mafia.

Who Killed Martin Luther King? by Douglas Valentine;
http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/assassinations/mlk.htm;
Orders to Kill by William F. Pepper;  Frame Up by Harold Weisberg;
Killing the Dream by Gerald Posner

To other assassination song lyrics:   TARGET ON HIS BACK
To other city song lyrics:   CAHUENGA, TOPANGA
To other police song lyrics:   IT'S JUST A JOB
To other crime song lyrics:   FORTY BIBLES
To other gun song lyrics:   BODY COUNT
To other racial song lyrics:   EHAWEE IS GONE
TOKEN WHITE BOY
BUT SINCE I'M JUST VANILLA
SANTA MIGHT BE A MEXICAN
A DIFFERENT SHADE OF LOVING
FIVE GOOD FRIENDS IN HARLEM
To the TOP
BACK to SONG LYRICS

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