About the song
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Words from the artist’s archive
BORROWED FLAG lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
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Intro
Channel sixty, July, Unit 4, door propped wide Allez. Vamos. Oya. Get inside
Verse 1
Twelve flags on one balcony, none of them ours Mr. Pierre brought the rice, Dona Marta brought the hours Haiti on the left wall, Honduras on the right Colombia in the kitchen frying something all night Nobody knew nobody till the anthem hit the screen Then we all leaned the same way, same green Strangers for a decade on the 441 Family for ninety minutes when the whistle run
Pre-chorus
Hands wet on the railing, throats already raw Sun going amber on the stucco wall Count it down, count it down, here it comes
Chorus
Whole block up, whole block up Borrowed flag, borrowed luck Sing it like we knew each other all along Ay-oh, ay-oh, one street, one song Whole block up, whole block up Hold the summer, don't let up We borrowed a country, gave it back in the fall Ay-oh, ay-oh, loudest on the wall
Verse 2
Old man from Jamaica clowning on the Brazil kid Kid said watch the final, bet a plate on what you did They argued through the group chat, forty messages deep Same man saved the kid a chair so he ain't stand on his feet Mexico, Nigeria, somebody's auntie from Peru Everybody talking smack in a language or two Lost the bet, paid the plate, laughing till it hurt Rivalry don't mean nothing when you share the same dirt
Pre-chorus
Hands wet on the railing, throats already raw Sun going amber on the stucco wall Count it down, count it down, here it comes
Chorus
Whole block up, whole block up Borrowed flag, borrowed luck Sing it like we knew each other all along Ay-oh, ay-oh, one street, one song We borrowed a country, gave it back in the fall Ay-oh, ay-oh, loudest on the wall
Verse 3
Underdog nobody picked got a run nobody saw We adopted a whole nation off a last-minute draw Poured out the doorways, poured into the street Two to one, ninety-fourth, whole 954 on its feet Pots and a cowbell, a horn from a cousin's car Grandma dancing further than she ever dared so far Didn't know the language, learned their players by heart Borrowed a heartbeat, every one of us a part
Bridge
Then the keeper guessed right One kick, whole street went white No music, just Dona Marta's hands across her mouth Mr. Pierre said something in Creole nobody wrote down For one held breath we all hurt the exact same amount We borrowed a flag for the summer We always knew the fall would come and count
Verse 4
Funny how the loss is what made us a we Closer in the quiet than we ever got to be Nobody went home yet, nobody dimmed the porch glow Just sat inside the heartbreak like we finally had somewhere to go
Verse 5
September took the flags down one window at a time Group chat went to nothing, last text read good game you're fine Dona Marta waves now, that's about as far as it goes Twelve doors, twelve corners, back to twelve separate shows But I kept one photo, porch full, score still on the screen One empty folding chair where the old man used to lean Told everybody it was only a game, no big call Then I framed the whole summer on my hallway wall
Chorus
Whole block up, whole block up Borrowed flag, borrowed luck Sing it like we knew each other all along Ay-oh, ay-oh, one street, one song We borrowed a country, gave it back in the fall Loudest summer of them all
Outro
One flag. One chair. One summer. Gone
Inside the recording
Channel sixty, July, Unit 4, door propped wide Allez. Vamos. Oya. Get inside
Hands wet on the railing, throats already raw Sun going amber on the stucco wall
One flag. One chair. One summer. Gone
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.