Odes to Joy

Odes to Old Fourth Ward · Track 22 · closer

Saturday at the Park We Saved

Old Fourth Ward Spring/Summer festival anthem — 14th annual, at Historic Fourth Ward Park (pond-to-park; the neighborhood that saved itself twice)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Sun's up over Old Fourth Ward, the BeltLine's wide awake
Folding tables, paper cups, and somebody's homemade cake
Kids out running on the green where the water used to lay
Fourteen springs of the same sweet noise — and it's loudest here today

[Chorus]
It's Saturday at the park we saved
Come on down where the whole block waves
Brass in the air and a tale to tell
The pond turned to paradise and the neighborhood's well
Oh — Saturday at the park we saved

[Verse 2]
Art strung up along the fence — peaches, collards, sweet iced tea
Old hands and the brand-new faces, every shade of family
There was fire back in 1917 — we came up from the gray
We don't sing about the losing now; we just dance, and we stay

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]
Saved it from the rising water, saved it from the road
Laid it back with our own two hands and a front-porch golden glow
Every spring's a little proof of the promise that we made
So raise your cup to the ones before — here at the park we saved

[Chorus]
It's Saturday at the park we saved
Come on down where the whole block waves
Brass in the air and a tale to tell
The pond turned to paradise and the neighborhood's well
Oh — Saturday at the park we saved

[Outro]
Right where the pond used to be — sing it proud
Fourth Ward forever — that's our crowd
Pick a song