Historians know the idea of this song about free thought was around since the 12th century.

Since the 16th century, peasants and rebels have sung a song about the power of a free mind, free thought, free speech.

It's called "Die Gedanken Sind Frei" in German, and it roughly translates to mean "Our Thoughts Are Free" or "All Thoughts Are Free."

You may read the text of the lyrics in English on this site by clicking here.

You may download a PDF version of the one-page lyric sheet by clicking here.

You may download an MS Word version of the one-page lyric sheet by clicking here.

Here's another version of the English lyrics here:

http://www.diegedankensindfrei.com/

For a quick history see the wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei

For more historic background you can google the title and set the advanced search to English.

To hear the tune on the Internet there are several places to go.

You can read both the original German and English, plus download a midi of the tune here:

http://members.aol.com/masksfaces/whiterose/free.html

Or you can hear the tune here:

http://home.alphalink.com.au/~jperkins/HumanistSongs.htm#DIEGEDAN

On iTunes you can get a few versions of the song. There's a short version by Pete Seeger. Also, the Brazillian Girls have made up their own modern tune with fun percussion to sing the lyrics. You can view a video on YouTube of this group performing the song live in New York City's Anamorphic by clicking here.

No matter what, the song is still provoking discussion, as one can see in this online chat here:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1185.html