Oh, my name, it ain't nothing, my age, it means less,
The country I come from is called the Midwest,
I was born
1 and brought up there all the laws to abide
And that the land that I live in has God on its side.
Now
2, the history books tell it, they tell it so well:
The cavalries charged, then the Indians fell,
The cavalries charged, then the Indians died.
Oh, the country was young with God on its side.
Now, the Spanish-American War had its day,
Then the Civil War too was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes I was made to memorize
With guns in their hands and God on their side.
The First World War, boys, it came and it went,
The reason for fighting I never did get,
But I learned to accept it, accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead when God's on your side.
But now we've got weapons of a-chemical dust,
If fire them we're forced to, then fire them we must,
One push of the button, then a shot the world wide,
And you never ask questions when God's on your side.
Through many a dark hour I've been thinking about this,
That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss,
But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.
So, now as I'm leaving, I'm weary as hell,
The confusion I'm feeling ain't no tongue can tell,
The words fill my head and they fall to the floor,
That, if God is on our side, He'll stop the next war.
1
In the album version, Dylan says "taught" in this line, which makes more sense in terms of what comes later in the next line. Although I don't believe he says that in this version, it almost sounds like Dylan fumbles the word "born" a little bit, almost saying something that sounds like "bought".