Zestig jaar later. Gaat dit over een nonconformistische schooljongen of is hij gay? Het maakt niet veel uit, we zijn niet verder in de VS. Een Phil Spector-productie, geschreven door Barry Mann en Cynthia Weil, 1965.
The school board says “he can’t come to school, no more”
unless he wears his hair like he wore it before.
The PTA and all the mothers, say he ought to look like the others.
Home of the brave, land of the free
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
The kids all laugh at his hair and funny clothes.
And more than once he’s gone home with a bloody nose
he’s not like them and they can’t ignore it. So they all hate him for it.
Home of the brave, land of the free
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
It really burns me up, when they put him down
He’s the only one whose saying something in this whole town
Instead of those the trouble they hand him, why don’t they try to understand him.
Home of the brave, land of the free
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
he never hurt nobody,
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
he just a little bit different.
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
You got to understand him.
why won’t you let him be what he wants to be
Bonnie and the Treasures, het origineel door een girl group waarvan ik pas bij dezen hoor…
Jody Miller, hitversie. Roger Gale op Caroline zei dat “it [made] him go wild”, hij werd dan ook later Tory MP.
Ronettes -blijkbaar nooit uitgebracht.
– Uitgelicht: publiciteitsfoto Jody Miller
