September 9, 2001

Heaven Help Us All

Heaven help the child who never had a home,
Heaven help the girl who walks the street alone
Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall,
Heaven help us all.

Heaven help the black man if he struggles one more day,
Heaven help the white man if he turns his back away,
Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl,
Heaven help us all.

Heaven help us all, heaven help us all, help us all.
Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call
Oh, yeah!

Heaven help the boy who won't reach twenty-one,
Heaven help the man who gave that boy a gun.
Heaven help the people with their backs against the wall,
Lord, Heaven help us all.

Heaven help us all, heaven help us all, heaven help us all, help us all.
Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call.

Now I lay me down before I go to sleep.
In a troubled world, I pray the Lord to keep, keep hatred from the mighty,
and the mighty from the small,
Heaven help us all.
Oh, oh, oh, yeah!
Heaven help us all.


William Galison: (…) “Stevie Wonder and Joan Baez covered this amazing song in the early 70’s and made a deep impression on my mind. The song asks for compassion for both the victim and the victimizers, from Heaven at least, if not from us. The lyrics are timeless, but I was inspired to write one additional verse after 9/11.” – William Galison & Madeleine Peyroux - Got you in my mind (2003/2004)