Available as
a single
Artist Statement
It is painful to look back at one's homeland from afar and realize one no longer knows it. I have lived abroad since 2006 and, although I have traveled back to the States at least once and often twice each year, around half the country has been heading in a direction that I cannot fathom. Maybe some day I can return, but for some time it has seemed an alien place to me in many respects. The outlook seemed particularly dicey in mid-2024, when I wrote the song, but might have improved slightly as we completed its recording. It is being posted just before a consequential US election, but I am aware the attitudes and perspectives that I find baffling will take years to work their way out of the country's system—and then only if there's a certain political outcome.
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Words and music ©2024 Squeaky Toy Music/Adam M. Steinberg. Demo ©2024.
All Rights Reserved
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Demo produced by Bryan Conti at Sugoi Music Studio, Parañaque City, Philippines. Vocals: Adam Steinberg; Harmonies: Adam Steinberg, with additional high harmonies from JM De Jesus; Acoustic Guitars: Adam Steinberg and JM De Jesus; Drums: David Tomines; Keyboards: Jeremy Mallorca. Recording also makes use of Garageband 10 (Bass). ​​
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Image generated by Dall-E 3.
Goodbye, Lady Liberty, Goodbye
Thought I could stay here for good
Thought this was where I belonged
Not gonna argue who’s changed and
Who’s right and who’s wrong.
But now that I’ve stood on this hill
Looking over the landscape below
It seems like an alien world
One that I’ll never know
So Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
Goodbye, Sea to Shining Sea, goodbye
It pains me so, my heart to sever,
I don’t know if it’s forever
But Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
Snug in a quilt, handed down,
By hearts full of hope it was made
I felt safe ‘till I saw that its blocks
Were unraveled and frayed
And the scenes that I knew from my youth
Have been unsewed and warped in the weave
The closer you look, the less
You know what to believe.
So Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
Goodbye, Purple Majesty, goodbye
It pains me so, my heart to sever,
I don’t know if it’s forever
But Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
When the people think ammo and oil are silver and gold
When your fist has been clenched for so long you can't open your hand
When your friends seem distracted and cold
And your neighbors regard you with doubt
And all you can see are the threads coming free
And you get that it’s time to get out
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So pack up my suitcase again
I’ll have to leave some things behind
That thunder I hear in the distance
Weighs hard on my mind
And as I fly over the sea
I’ll watch for the twilight’s last gleam
As your torch shimmer fades like an angel
Seen once in a dream
So Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
Goodbye, Brave Land of the Free, goodbye
It pains me so, my heart to sever,
I don’t know if it’s forever
So Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
I could say it’s not you, it’s me
But that would be a lie
So Goodbye, country ‘tis of thee,
Goodbye, oh say can you see,
Goodbye, Lady Liberty, goodbye
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