Free Man

Lynyrd Skynyrd
Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973)
Free Bird

If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?
For I must be travelling on, now,
'Cause there's too many places I've got to see.
But, if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I can't change.

Bye, bye, its been a sweet love.
Though this feeling I can't change.
But please don't take it badly,
'Cause Lord knows I'm to blame.
But, if I stayed here with you girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you'll never change.
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I can't change.
Lord help me, I can't change.

like a bird
on a wire
like a drunk
in a midnight choir
i have tried
in my way
to be free

like a worm
on a hook
like a night
in some old-fashioned book
i have saved
all my ribbons
for thee.

if i...
if i have been unkind
i hope you know
it was not in my mind
and if i
if i have been untrue
i hope you know
it was never to you.

like a baby, still-born,
like a beast, with his horn
i have torn
everyone
who reached out to me.

but i swear
by this song,
and by all that i have done wrong,
i have tried
in my way... to be free

Leonard Cohen / about 1960

The Beatles
"Free As A Bird"

Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird

Home, home and dry
Like a homing bird I'll fly
As a bird on wings

Whatever happened to
The life that we once knew?
Can we really live without each other?

Where did we lose the touch
That seemed to mean so much?
It always made me feel so...

Free as a bird
Like the next best thing to be
Free as a bird

Home, home and dry
Like a homing bird I'll fly
As a bird on wings

Whatever happened to
The life that we once knew?
Always made me feel so free

Ah...
Ah...
Ah...

Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird
Free as a bird
Free as a bird
Oooooo

Free...

She married me for what I was
But she’s left me now today, because
She couldn’t change--- 'The Free man that's me'
Into what, she thought that I should be.

Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn

SCOTS, what hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power --
Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!

Wha, for Scotland's King and Law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Free-man stand, or Free-man fa',
Let him on wi' me!

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We sill drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us do or die!

Robert Burns

The Scotchish Highlanders in their brown kilts and bonnets bobbing as they advanced toward the battle behind the Screeching, wailing scotch pipes, were given by the Germans the nickname, “The Ladies from Hell.” By R. Douglas Pinkerton

The battle sways backward and forward
In wedges and hollows and curves,
A hard-pressed battalion is yielding,
A leader has called for reserves.
Hark ! Drone of the pipes in the distance
That grows to a soul-stirring swell !
Brown-skirted, with bonnets a-bobbing,
Come up the gay Ladies from Hell !

O brightly the sunlight is gleaming
On the blades that the rifles reveal.
The Ladies are wearing their jewels;
Hurrah ! for the glint of the steel !
O fiercely they swing to the music.
Their faces alight with its spell ;
Brave-hearted, bare-kneed and triumphant.
The lean- featured Ladies from Hell !

Our foes have made war upon women
By dastardly choice of their own.
The daughters of Belgium are weeping.
The mothers of Flanders make moan.
Ho! Slayers of maids and of mothers.
Do your bayonets serve you as well
When you're called up to stand in the open
And face the grim Ladies from Hell?