I'm coming home I've done my time,

Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine,

If you receive my letter tellin' you I'd soon be free,

Then you'll know just what to do, if you still want me, if you still want me.

Tie a yellow ribbon `round the ole oak tree,

It's been three long years, do ya still want me?

If I don't see a ribbon ,round the ole oak tree,

I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me

If I don't see a ribbon `round the ole oak tree.

Bus driver, please look for me `cause I couldn't bear to see what I might see,

I'm really still in prison, and my love, she holds the key,

Simple yellow ribbon's what I need to set me free.

I wrote and told her please tie a yellow ribbon `round the ole oak tree,

It's been three long years, do ya still want me?

If I don't see a ribbon `round the ole oak tree,

I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me,

If I don't see a ribbon `round the ole oak tree.

Now the whole damn bus is cheering and I can't believe I see

A hundred yellow ribbons `round the ole oak tree.



(Now for the Ninoy Aquino version. For his last return to the Philippines after years of exile, his

followers tied yellow ribbons around all street poles and fences along the route he was to pass

through. He never saw them, he was assassinated in the airport. I was his friend and colleague, we

ran together for election to the Senate, and I wrote this song in his memory. During the Edsa

Revolution, yellow arm bands, yellow ribbons pinned to shirts and blouses, and showers of yellow

confetti, greeted his widow Cory Aquino as she challenged the dictator for the presidency. This song

was part of that era.}



The Song of Ninoy, with lyr