“Though They Promise” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Though They Promise” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Bertram Lester Weber.
Tune: “Why Don’t You Try.”
Most every night, when the weather is right,
On the corner of most any street,
With Bibles in hand, the Gospel sharks stand,
Roping the suckers they meet.
With tears in their eyes and sanctified sighs,
They tell you to have faith and hope.
But what man could live on what they have to give
For its nothing but what you’d call “dope”.
Though they promise you a heaven,
Though they frighten you with hell,
Though they promise wings and golden harps
And other things as well,
Though they tell you that they’d like to put
A crown upon your head,
They won’t do a damned thing for you
Until your dead, until your dead!
For two thousand years with sanctified tears,
They’ve been singing of home up above.
But here where we dwell, they have made it a hell,
And yet they dare sing of love.
They fear the truth, and they lie to the youth,
And they damn all who will not believe.
An eternal hell suits their theories well,
For they frighten when they cannot deceive.
Though they promise you a heaven,
Though they frighten you with hell,
Though they promise wings and golden harps
And other things as well,
Though they tell you that they’d like to put
A crown upon your head,
They won’t do a damned thing for you
Until your dead, until your dead!
But now it is the time to ring a new chime,
For I want my heaven right here.
The one in the sky in the sweet bye and bye
Is a Santa Claus story, I fear.
That old fairy tale has at last become stale
During two thousand years it has been told.
For who wants to die for a home in the sky
And a harp that is made of gold?
Though they promise you a heaven,
Though they frighten you with hell,
Though they promise wings and golden harps
And other things as well,
Though they tell you that they’d like to put
A crown upon your head,
They won’t do a damned thing for you
Until your dead, until your dead!