There's an old man talkin'

To a young boy weepin'

An old man shaking his head

There's a cool gentle breeze

In the night full of light

As the red glow wavers instead

There's a black man crying

And a white man dyin'

A black mans head in the air

And the shock of life

Feeds the night

Beats what's in my head

Holding tight in the stillness of the night

In the stillness of my thoughts

Yet I know I've only started

Beating on a tin drum marching to a sound

What is it I think

Am I beating on a tin drum marching to a cause

When I don't know what it is I believe

I believe I believe beating on life

Lonely peeping chick

Calling to his mother

Runs amuck

In a sunken black ditch

And Williams with the widow

While Martha's in the meadow

And the lamb is layin' in sick

And the boy in black

Is talking some slack

To the king of Auld Lang Syne

And my heart goes out

But I cannot spout what I do not know inside

Holding tight in the stillness of the night

In the stillness of my thoughts

Yet I know I've only started

Beating on a tin drum marching to a sound

What is it that I think

Am I beating on a tin drum marching to a cause

When I don't know what it is I believe I believe I believe

Beating on a tin drum marching to a sound

What is it that I think

Am I beating on a tin drum marching to a cause

When I don't know what it is I believe

I believe I believe

Beating on a drum

Beating on the life

Beating on the cause

Beating in the night

Beating on a drum

Beating on the life