When Will We Be Paid - The Staple Singers

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

We have worked this country from shore to shore

Our women cooked all your food and washed all your clothes

We picked all your cotton and laid the railroad steel

Worked our hands to the bone at your lumber mill

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

We fought in your wars in every land

To keep this country free, y’all, for women, children, and men

But anytime we ask for pay alone

That’s when everything seems to turn out wrong

We’ve been beat up (Beat up)

Called names (Called names)

Shot down and stoned

But every time we do right, someone say we wrong

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

We have given our sweat and all our tears

We stumbled through this life for more than 300 years

We’ve been separated from the land which we knew

Stripped of our culture, people you know it’s true

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

Will we ever be proud of «My country, 'tis of thee?»

Will we ever sing out loud, «Sweet Land of Liberty?»

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?

Tell me now, for the work we’ve done

Will we ever have peace and harmony?

I wanna know, will we ever be paid?

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done?