 For their second single , the Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein 's " America " which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song . The track used the main theme of the Bernstein piece ( from West Side Story ) but also included fragments of Dvořák 's New World Symphony . The single concludes with Arnold 's three @-@ year @-@ old son speaking the lines " America is pregnant with promise and anticipation , but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable . " The new arrangement was released under the title " America ( Second Amendment ) " as a pointed reference to the US Bill of Rights provision for the right to bear arms . In July 1968 , Immediate publicised the single with a controversial poster picturing the group members with small boys on their knees , with superimposed images of the faces of John F. Kennedy , Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King on the children 's heads . A spokesman for the band said " Several record stores have refused to stock our current single .... the Nice feel if the posters are issued in United States they will do considerable harm " . During the tour that followed the release of their second album in July , the group spawned controversy when Emerson burned an American flag onstage during a performance of " America " at a charity event , Come Back Africa in London 's Royal Albert Hall . The group were subsequently banned from ever playing the venue again . 
