They Took It Away

My kin come to Texas from Tennessee with Davy Crockett a long time ago
I guess it’s pretty lucky for me they didn’t all go to The Alamo
They fought to make Texas free from the armies of old Mexico
They must’ve thought it was somethin' to be in a land where a family could grow
So they took it away
They took it away again
I wonder what those brave women and men
Would do if they could come back around
What would they say
About the way everything has been?
I don’t think they were tryin' to win
A place to put poison in the ground
Now I live on an Oklahoma hill; it ain’t Texas but it used to be
Back before Jackson signed the deal to make it indian territory
In the winter that was freezin' cold they marched the Cherokee
In the land rush the settlers stole every place that they could be
They took it away
They took it away again
They had the sword and they had the pen
Worse than Spaniards come for gold
They took it away
They took it away again
Now they poison the lakes and the lands
That their great-grandfathers stole
Somethin' happened in between the time it was home for the outlaw man
And the time I like to think is mine; it’s just where all the oil money’s been
How can anybody make a meal from what they can’t afford to grow?
And what’s gonna to be left to steal when there are no more free souls?
They took it away
They took it away again
How much time do you have to spend
Just to get them to let you be?
Take it away
Take it away again
I always want to be livin' in
The land of the free
The land of the free