Robyn Landis: Listen
Paul's Song - John Lennon Grand Prize Winning Song
Paul is a real person. He is a Vietnam veteran, a dad, a survivor, a passionate activist for veterans' issues, a blues player, and a sweetie. He lives in Eastern Washington and he taught me two important lessons. One was about making snap judgments and assumptions. The other is that the flag belongs to all of us--not just to the right.
"Paul's Song" is a 2009 Grand Prize Winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (folk category Session 1). When JLSC asked for a written answer to "What inspired the creation of your song? I provided this story:
Robyn was scheduled to stay with Paul Knight several years ago in Richland, Washington, as her “home-stay” for the Tumbleweed Music Festival (a common practice is for locals to put up out-of-towners during folk festivals). When the kindly man gave her directions, he mentioned in a Southern-sounding drawl that the house had “an American flag painted on the garage door.” She remembers rolling her eyes and thinking, “Oh, brother, this is going to be interesting.”
When she got there, she was chastened and humbled to find her snap judgment about Eastern Washington right-wing politics couldn't have been more off base. A Vietnam veteran close to her father's age, Paul was a passionate anti-war activist with a generous and gentle heart. He spoke vehemently and movingly about war and humanity. He campaigned with Vets for Kerry and mentored returning Iraq war vets who, he said, were coming back “looking just like we did.” He has become a close friend and loyal fan.
Robyn always intended to write a song about Paul and what he taught her, his quiet heroism, his poignant words about the effect of war on “a soldier's heart,” and the inspiration offered by his openness and courage after so much hardship. She already had pages of scratch lyrics about him in a “songwriting-in-process” pile last year when she and Larry began co-writing. They toiled over every word of Paul's song weekly for a couple of months before “Paul's Song” emerged finished.
Robyn now says simply, “Paul taught me two important things: the importance of not making assumptions, and that the flag belongs to all of us; it is not just the symbol of the right.
“Patriotism is complex.”
The song is recorded both on Robyn's May 2009 release “Many Moons” and Larry's April 2009 release “Point of Entry.” They are proud to be performing the song in Paul's home town at the Tumbleweed Music Festival one week after learning of the song's placement in the JLSC.
Paul painted a flag on his garage door
I thought that meant I knew his heart and mind
I made up mine I made a joke before I met this old soldier
He changed it for me in no time
He looks kinda right, but he’s on the left
And he's better at the middle than anyone I've ever met
He keeps his arms wide open to the ones comin’ home
All those battered young women and men
How could he wave old glory like it was his friend
Why would he ever salute again
He didn't look away
He didn't look away
He just took those colors back his way
Paul didn’t know the flag before he went to war
Until his purple heart of gold became an open sore
Well he drank for a reason
and when he gave up those demons
he found what those colors stand for
How could he wave old glory like it was his friend
Why would he ever salute again
He didn't look away
He didn't look away
He just took those colors back
His corrugated stripes and stars
remind us of who we still are
It's not a blanket or a shield
It's raw and flawed and not all healed
He's got it where the neighborhood
can see he still thinks it's good
He just took those colors back...
Paul painted a flag on his garage door
I though that meant I knew his heart and mind
But I was wrong and that’s a fact
and if I could I’d take it back
Just like he took those colors
The way he took those colors
Like he took those colors back...
his way