Two legendary musicians, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison, have released an anti-lockdown song that rips the “police state” amid COVID-19 lockdowns across the world that they say is making the cure worse than the disease.
“Stand and Deliver,” written by Morrison and performed by Clapton, was released Friday. The four-and-a-half minute blues song includes some harsh lyrics.
“Do you wanna’ be a free man or do you wanna be a slave?” Clapton, the former Cream guitarist, sings in the song. “Do you wanna’ wear these chains until you’re lying in the grave?”
Other lyrics include: “Magna Carta, Bill of Rights/ The constitution, what’s it worth?/ You know they’re gonna’ grind us down, ah/ Until it really hurts/ Is this a sovereign nation/ Or just a police state?/ You better look out, people/ Before it gets too late.”
The song ends with Clapton singing, “Dick Turpin wore a mask too,” a reference to an 18th century highwayman who wore a mask to hide his identity as he committed crimes.
Musicians have been hit hard by lockdowns as live concerts have all but disappeared. Morrison, who is Irish, recently released other anti-lockdown songs, including “Born to Be Free,” “As I Walked Out” and “No More Lockdown.”
Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann has criticized Morrison’s tracks.
“It’s actually a smear on all those involved in the public health response to a virus that has taken lives on a massive scale,” Swann told Rolling Stone in September. “His words will give great comfort to the conspiracy theorists – the tin foil hat brigade who crusade against masks and vaccines and think this is all a huge global plot to remove freedoms.”
Clapton and Morrison have both complained about the effect of lockdowns on musicians. “We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess,” Clapton previously said in a statement. “The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover.”
Here are the full lyrics:
Stand and deliver
You let them put the fear on you
Stand and deliver
But not a word you heard was true
But if there’s nothing you can say
There may be nothing you can do
Do you wanna be a free man
Or do you wanna be a slave?
Do you wanna be a free man
Or do you wanna be a slave?
Do you wanna wear these chains
Until you’re lying in the grave?
I don’t wanna be a pauper
And I don’t wanna be a prince
I don’t wanna be a pauper
And I don’t wanna be a prince
I just wanna do my job
Playing the blues for friends
Magna Carta, Bill of Rights
The constitution, what’s it worth?
You know they’re gonna grind us down, ah
Until it really hurts
Is this a sovereign nation
Or just a police state?
You better look out, people
Before it gets too late
You wanna be your own driver
Or keep on flogging a dead horse?
You wanna be your own driver
Or keep on flogging a dead horse?
Do you wanna make it better
Or do you wanna make it worse?
Stand and deliver
You let them put the fear on you
Sold down the river
But not a word of it was true
If there’s nothing you can say
There may be nothing you can do
Stand and deliver
Stand and deliver
Dick Turpin wore a mask too