He's a ruthless opportunist And he motivates by greed He's just the way his father was And that we sure don't need So they all cried out destroy him For he wants to see us drowned They never understood him So they put him in the ground. Now some had stood for hours And some sat on the grass Listening to their radios For where the train had passed And a crowd will get impatient As the clock hands turn around They never understood him So they put him in the ground. They handed out some candles To the somber weary crowd And told us not to light them Till our eyes beheld the shroud Not even at that moment Could there be tranquility I could feel them push and argue Hey, sit down, I cannot see They never understood him So they put him in the ground. When the fathers closed their bibles And the family left the site The ropes and walls and hedges Kind of faded in the night Replaced by all the people Who made a prayerful sound They never understood him So they put him in the ground. Some people say the eighth of June But the morning of the ninth The workmen gently lowered him By the beam of three work lights Easy, take it easy Set him down real slow He'd been on some rougher trips But he couldn't tell them so They never understood him So they put him in the ground. Now no man has the answers And he was just a man And yet I can't help feelin' That he knew a better plan A shorter road to justice On the trip that's freedom bound But they never understood him So they put him in the ground