Sketches of China - Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Paul Kantner

He’s stronger by talk than by sight

But by sight he’ll know you

You buy him a ride he’ll know you

Somebody’s bound to lead you

Sooner or later you’re bound to go

You don’t know what this man feels like

He doesn’t care if you think you know

Somebody’s bound to lead you

If that man got a smile on his face

Sooner or later you’re bound to go

Bound to go

Let me tell you bout a man I knew

He roamed the depth and the breadth of China

On a horse that he grew himself

From the bark of a tree on mainland China

And he had a time yes he had the time of his life in China

He carried strife and harmony to all the people on the mainland

And there was a warlord who rode the murky depths of China

With a shotgun in his hand and he wondered where the people’d gone to

Have you got the time to listen while i sing this song

I had the time to listen to the man go right and wrong and right thru

China

And it ain’t what you want it’s what you need

No it ain’t what you want it’s what you need

And I’d rather be here than yesterday

It ain’t what you want it’s what you need

And there was a lady she rolled around in town in China

And there was a lady she rolled and rolled

And she killed a war she made the warlord rise in time

She sat him down took him down and she laid him out for just one more

Round

Drunk in a beautiful garden celebration

Here comes the Khan Storm the palace look for Alice

Rising Oriental girl diving back for just one more pearl

And it ain’t what she wants it’s what she needs

She don’t want your sound she wants your country

And I’d rather be next year than on the way to Bombay

It ain’t what you want it’s what you need