`Kunstler On Your Side'

(chorus)

He was known as a “People’s Lawyer”
Although he got on TV
And when William Kunstler argued
The judge said: “Not guilty!”

(verses)

If you like to sing some folk songs
And you’re bothered by the F.B.I.
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side.

If you’re trapped in Alabama
Where a sheriff took you for a ride
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side. (chorus)

If you’re fighting against the War Machine
And you’re jailed for exposing lies
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side.

If you’ve led a protest march
Where the police beat you ‘till you cried
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side. (chorus)

If you’re charged with “conspiracy”
And “illegally crossing state lines”
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side.

If you’re revolting in a prison
Against guards that brutalized
Then my advice for all you folk fans
Is to have Kunstler on your side. (chorus)

The original version of the public domain Kunstler On Your Side biographical protest folk song about the now-deceased civil rights attorney was written in the 1980s.

In his 1999 biography of William Kunstler, William M. Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer In America, a law school professor named David Langum indicated which kind of private practice clients Kunstler would not represent in the 1980s and 1990s:

“Like all lawyers in private practice, Kunstler also took cases for no more exalted reason than to earn a fee. Political selectivity continued, although a more realistic statement of Kunstler’s later position was that given to a reporter in 1994:…He would not have taken on O.J. Simpson `because it’s a wife killing case.’ Nor would he have represented the hotel mogul Leona Helmsley, who, `although she has the same civil rights as anyone, is a rather detestable character with few redeeming qualities.’”

For more information about William Kunstler’s life, you might want to check out the new documentary film, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe, or the www.disturbingtheuniverse.com web site.

To listen to some other biographical protest folk songs, you can check out the “Columbia Songs for a Democratic Society” music site at the following link:

http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music