Ragged Old Flag

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag
you got hanging on it.

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to
our little town?" I said, "I think it is."
He said, "I don't like to brag, But
we're kinda proud of
that Ragged Old Flag."


"You see, we got a little hole in that
flag there When Washington took it
across the Delaware. And it got
powder-burned the night Francis
Scott Key Sat watching it
writing _Oh Say Can You See_.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson
tuggin' at its seams."

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag,
but she waved on through.
She got cut with a sword at
Chancellorsville And she got cut
again at Shiloh Hill. There was Robert E.
Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,and the south
wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag."


"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low
by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by
her Uncle Sam."
 


"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit
waving her back here at home.
In her own good land she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored,
denied and refused."


"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."


"So we raise her up every morning,
Take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought I DO like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of
that Ragged Old Flag."

Written by Johnny Cash