Joan Baez - The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti (+lyrics)

Joan Baez performed this song for the 1971 film Sacco and Vanzetti.
The pictures and drawings (namely by Ben Shahn and William Groper) are taken from publications of the time of the case.

Father, yes I am a prisoner;
Fear not to relay my crime.
The crime is loving the forsaken,
Only silence is shame.

And now I'll tell you what's against us,
An art that's lived for centuries...
Go through the world and you will find
What's blackened all of history.
Against us is the law with its
Immensity of strength and power
- Against us is the law!
Police know how to make a man
A guilty or an innocent.
- Against us is the power of police!
The shameless lies that men have told
Will ever more be paid in gold...
- Against us is the power of the gold!
Against us is the racial hatred
And the simple fact that we're poor.

My father dear, I am a prisoner.
Don't be ashamed to tell my crime,
The crime of love and brotherhood;
And only silence is shame.

With me I have my love, my innocence,
The workers and the poor
For all of this I'm safe and strong
And hope is mine!
Rebellion, revolution don't need dollars,
They need this instead :
Imagination, suffering, light and love
And care for every human being!
You never steal, you never kill,
You are a part of hope and life.
The revolution goes from man to man
And heart to heart!
And I sense when I look at the stars
That we are children of life;
Death is small...