A roots reggae song about one of the oldest problems there is: a community condemning someone before it hears what they have to say. In ancient Athens, a farmer who had never met a man named Aristides voted to exile him just because he was tired of hearing him called “the Just.” Socrates told his jury that he feared his “first accusers” most, the years of rumor that could never be cross-examined. Seneca wrote that anyone who decides without hearing the other side is not just, even if the decision turns out right. Jonathan Swift put it best in 1710: “Falsehood flies, and Truth comes limping after it.”
The song carries those voices into the present, where a clip can start halfway through a story, a headline can turn “people say” into fact by the second printing, and an old article gets a new birthday every time a website is redesigned. The fix has never been complicated. Hear the other side before you decide. And if you got it wrong, own it where you printed it. Salem’s judges managed that within five years. The correction would be free.
Written by John F. Sendelbach, produced with AI-assisted music tools.
TRUTH COME LIMPING
© 2026 John F. Sendelbach — All Rights Reserved
Hear the other side,
hear the other side,
yeah.
In the old Athenian square
They scratched a name on broken clay,
A farmer couldn’t write the letters,
So a stranger wrote them anyway.
“What did that good man do to you?”
“Nothing, I just tired of the praise.”
And the stranger was the man himself,
Writing his own exile on the shard that day.
Falsehood fly, and truth come limping,
Running late behind the tale,
By the time the truth arrive,
The lie done set its sail.
Hear the other side,
Hear the other side,
Before you judge a man,
Hear the other side,
Who decide without the hearing,
Never just, though right he stand.
First they write “the people say,”
Then the people fade away,
Print it once and call it maybe,
Print it twice, it’s fact today.
Start the camera when the fire’s burning,
Never show you how it caught,
Put the name up in the headline,
Never ask him what he thought.
Falsehood fly, and truth come limping,
Running late behind the tale,
By the time the truth arrive,
The lie done set its sail.
Hear the other side,
Hear the other side,
Before you judge a man,
Hear the other side,
Who decide without the hearing,
Never just, though right he stand.
Mister Editor, Mister Paper, hear me now,
You print the first accuser loud and leave the second out somehow,
Socrates did say the rumor is the danger in the land,
’Cause a rumor can’t be questioned, no, it never take the stand,
Dissent is not disloyalty, the broadcaster did declare,
We won’t walk in fear of one another, brother, that’s the prayer,
So check the record, check the source, before you mash the man,
Hear the other side, hear the other side, that’s the plan.
Your name is what the search engine say,
Your living ride on what they print,
New website give the story birthday,
Same old crooked hint.
They say the archive cannot change,
Then they send it round again,
A lie don’t yellow on a server,
It stay evergreen, my friend.
In Salem town they hanged the innocent
On spirits no one see,
Five years on the judge stood up and said
The shame belong to me.
Own it where you printed it,
Own it where it did the harm,
A correction cost them nothing,
But the silence cost the farm.
Falsehood fly, and truth come limping,
Running late behind the tale,
By the time the truth arrive,
The lie done set its sail.
Hear the other side,
Hear the other side,
Before you judge a man,
Hear the other side,
Who decide without the hearing,
Never just, though right he stand.
Not everything you face can change,
But nothing change till it be faced,
Truth come limping, truth come limping,
Still she win the race.
The correction would be free,
The correction would be free,
Hear the other side,
Hear the other side,
Hear the other side.