Lyrics A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall - The Staple Singers

The Staple Singers
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
Oh, where have you been, my wandering son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my wandering son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall
And what did you hear, my wandering son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warning
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one man starve, I heard many people laughing
I heard the song of a poet that died in the gutter
I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing
I heard the sound of the one person who said he was a human
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall
Oh, who did you meet, my wandering son?
And who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman who her body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
I met ten-thousand whispering and nobody listening
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall
Now what will you do, my wandering son?
What will you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-going back out 'fore the rain starts to falling
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where black is the color, where none is the number
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten
And I'll tell it, and speak it, and think it, and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so the all souls may see it
And then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking
But I'll know my song well before I start singing
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall
It's a hard rain's gonna fall