Lyrics You've Got To Be Carefully Taught - Peter Grant

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.
You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
of people whose eyes are oddly made,
and people whose skin is a different shade.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
before you are 6 or 7 or 8
to hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
«This is just the kind of ugliness I was running away from.
It has followed me all this way.
All this… now it has found me.»
I was cheated before and cheated again
by a mean little world full of mean little men.
The one chance for me is this life I know best
to be here on an island and to hell with the rest.
I’ll cling to this island like a tree or a storm
I’ll cling to this island and be free evermore.