Long before a word was ever spoken, there was a drum Buried in the body of the very first to breathe Older than a language, older than the sun coming up Humming in the cradle while the baby tried to sleep It was knocking on the inside of your great-great-grandma's skin Same way it's knocking on the inside of mine Every soul that ever was had the same song within And we lost a little of the lyric, but the rhythm's been fine Put your hand right here, you can feel it in your chest Same one shaking every body from the east to the west Don't take a teacher, don't take a book, just your two feet Walk outside and you'll be walking to the very same beat It's the pulse - of the people! Boom-boom rolling like a drum in the deep Different bodies but we equal Same old song that the whole world keep We beat as one - (hey!) we beat as one Pulse of the people, brighter than the sun You can see it in the way a stranger lends a helping hand You can hear it in the hush before the chorus of a song You can feel it in the dirt where every grandfather has been laid And the dirt remembers everybody's name, all along Watch a baby in a stroller turn her face into the light Watch an old man on a bench lift his cap to a friend Every heart that's ever beat already knew it before, already known That the long road back to one another is the long road home They tried to tell us we were different, but these bodies all work the same Same red running under everybody's skin Same old rhythm that your mother nursed you in Knowing we're all one is the name of the game It's the pulse - of the people! Boom-boom rolling like a drum in the deep Different bodies but we equal Same old song that the whole world keep We beat as one - (hey!) we beat as one Pulse of the people, brighter than the sun We beat as one, we beat as one Same old song since the very first one We beat as one, we beat as one Pulse of the people - carry on, carry on
