Homeless Persons' Memorial Day Top 100 Songs
​Song #73

Quicksilver Messenger Service
"What About Me?"

Quicksilver Messenger Service (sometimes credited as simply Quicksilver) is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, and several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts. They were part of the new wave of album-oriented bands, achieving renown and popularity despite an almost 

complete lack of success with their singles (apart from "Fresh Air", which reached number 49 in 1970). Though not as commercially successful as contemporaries Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was integral to the beginnings of their genre. With their jazz and classical influences and a strong folk background, the band attempted to create an individual, innovative sound. Music historian Colin Larkin wrote: "Of all the bands that came out of the San Francisco area during the late '60s, Quicksilver typified most the style, attitude and sound of that era."

​"What About Me" is the title track from the bands fifth studio album and was released in 1970. The song was written by Jesse Oris Farrow. Although, not a song about homelessness specifically, it does typify the objection of a generation of Americans that were unhappy with a plethora of social issues surrounding race, poverty, the environment, the justice system, inequality in general and the Viet Nam War.

"What About Me?"
Lyrics

You poisoned my sweet water.
You cut down my green trees.
The food you fed my children
Was the cause of their disease.

My world is slowly fallin' down
And the airs not good to breathe.
And those of us who care enough,
We have to do something.......

Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?

Your newspapers,
They just put you on.
They never tell you
The whole story.

They just put your
Young ideas down.
I was wonderin' could this be the end
Of your pride and glory?

Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?

I work in your factory.
I study in your schools.
I fill your penitentiaries.
And your military too!

And I feel the future trembling,
As the word is passed around.
"If you stand up for what you do believe,
Be prepared to be shot down."

Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?

And I feel like a stranger
In the land where I was born
And I live like an outlaw.
An' I'm always on the run...

An I'm always getting busted
And I got to take a stand....
I believe the revolution
Must be mighty close at hand...

Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?

I smoke marijuana
But I can't get behind your wars.
And most of what I do believe
Is against most of your laws

I'm a fugitive from injustice
But I'm goin' to be free.
Cause your rules and regulations
They don't do the thing for me

Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh... oh What you gonna do about me?

And I feel like a stranger
In the land where I was born
And I live just like an outlaw.
An' I'm always on the run.

​

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