Story Behind The Song

Alice is/was a young Syrian woman of Circassian descent who worked for Thom's family in Beirut as cook and housekeeper from 1956 until late 1961, when they left to return to America.

Song Description

Jericho in the title and song is a metaphor for any Levantine city in proximity to the invading Israelites: whether destroyed by the all-conquering Hebrews or because of dissension stirred up by them, the end is the same. Death and destruction.

Lyrics

Alice In Jericho

Now, the natural part of a Nazarene man
is the life he'll give for his own blood-band;
but there's nothing left over for the Philistines, too,
not the land they lost, nor the life they knew.
And the Prophet's peace of a thousand years
meant nothing but blood, means nothing but tears.

Yes, she's probably gone now, don't you know:
Alice tried to live in Jericho.
Didn't care about Hebrews' promised lands,
she said, "I get by as best I can."

When you get a bad mix in a tiny land,
every few damned years, it seems, it gets out of hand;
between bandit princes and their holy wars,
spilling blood in His name is a righteous chore.
Alice is innocent in a Levantine town,
and that's the first kind the heroes cut down.

Yes, she's probably gone now, don't you know:
Alice tried to live in Jericho.
Didn't care about Hebrews' promised lands,
she said, "I get by as best I can."

Now, I don't know if she's really gone,
but I'm thinking of the range of an average bomb,
or maybe the knife, in a righteous hand,
shortened her life in the Holy Land.
Or what I hope for her, as best of all:
that she only got shaken in the great downfall.

Yes, she's probably gone now, don't you know:
Alice tried to live in Jericho.
Didn't care about Hebrews' promised lands,
she said, "I get by as best I can."

©1977 Thom Moore, reg. IMRO, MCPS