Guess You Had to Be There

Janis Ian

breaking silence

Guess you had to be there

Back in nineteen-sixty-three

we walked a fine line

We were taking to the streets

skating on a thin dime

We were searching after truth and beauty

Now they turn it into late night movies

How can I explain

that it's not the same?

Guess you had to be there to be where

love belonged to everyone

Flowers in the long hair, we stood there singing "We Shall Overcome"

Knowing the eyes of the world were on us

Knowing the whole world cared

Guess you had to be there

In the summer of our youth

we came together

and we knew that our truth

it would live forever

We were gonna make the whole world honest

when a bullet got the bravest of us

Somehow nothing else was sacred

and we all stood naked

chorus

Now we listen to the news

and it seems all hope is gone

Everybody feeling used

and there's nowhere left to run

Sometimes it seems like the memory

is all that's left of our used-to-be

but what can never be denied

is the way we changed inside

chorus