i grew up in the shadow of the bomb come of age during viet nam many thousand gone i never did know why well look around it s so hard to see what s happening to our big family i m an american i m gonna let my freak flag fly fly well my dad preached a message of love i heard him say on the day he passed on above he said use what you got son to raise a hopeful cry dad i heard what you had to say i try to hold to it every day i m your boy i m gonna let my freak flag fly fly fly flag of green flag of brown leaves in the sky roots in the ground i m singing and stomping by the dawns early light for every soul being beat down for every child who sees the light and turns around come on now let s let that freak flag fly fly fly