Where Do I Go From Here

(Words and Music: Brendan Nolan; Produced and arranged by David Gossage)

Key of D Minor

Songs have been written already on the subject of the Birmingham Six. I wondered what it was like to be suddenly set free after that length of time incarcerated for a crime you did not commit. When the Governor of Illinois suspended executions in his state the song expanded somewhat to include the awful possibility of putting an innocent person to death.

1st Chorus:
Where do I go from here
Now that you’ve freed me
Where do I go from here
Do you think it’s easy
Locked up for more years
Than I care to mention
Where do I go from here
I’d like to bring it to your attention

My winter came early back in ‘74
You threw away the key
When you locked the door
Now all these wasted years
Trying to make you see
We never gave up the fight
Though I near lost my sanity

1st Chorus:

Well then you saw the truth
But you couldn’t say you’d failed
And you dragged it on once more
While we languished in your jail
Though our innocence was known to all
You’re the last to realize
And you think now we just walk away
And get on with our lives

2nd Chorus:
Where do I go from here
Now that you’ve freed me
Where do I go from here
Do you think it’s easy
Locked away for all those years
From my family
Where do I go from here
Do you think you’ve set me free

And what about the ones
Waiting for their final hour
Doomed from the start
Because of who they are
They can’t afford a savior
To help them have their day
But if you’ve got the money
Man, you can walk away

1st Chorus

Still they say the guilty
Are the ones they send away
And if mistakes are made
All they have to say
This system isn’t perfect
But what if someone dies
And if Justice shed her blindfold
She’d not believe her eyes

2nd Chorus