Lyr Req: Give a Damn (from The Johnstons)

Subject: Give a damn
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 07:42 AM

The Johnstons sang a song titled 'Give a damn' on their LP 'Give a damn'. The sleeve notes say it is a Joni Mitchell song, but I haven't been able to find it in the big Joni Mitchell website. I can't understand enough of the lyrics even to start postiung them. I'd appreciate any help.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: Allan C.
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 11:51 PM

Spanky and Our Gang did a song by that title. Don't know if it might be the same one. A favorite line from it, (unfortunately just about all I can recall of the lyrics) was:

"Suppose you had to share your bed with something else that must be fed. Do you think that you would mind?"

Subject: Lyr Add: GIVE A DAMN (from Spanky and our Gang)
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 11:41 PM

I still don't know if this is the same song. I was able to locate the lyrics. I have always thought it was excellent.

GIVE A DAMN
(1970) Spanky and our Gang

If you take the train with me
Uptown through the misery
Of ghetto streets in morning light
There always night (possibly They're)
Take a window seat, put down your times
You can read between the lines
Just meet the faces that you see
Beyond the window's pane (pain)

Chorus
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man

Put your girl to sleep sometime
With rats instead of nursery rhymes
With hunger and your other children at her side
And wonder if you'll share your bed
With something else that must be fed
Or fear may lie beside you
Or it may slink down the hall

Chorus

Come and see how well despair
Is seasoned by the stifling air
See a ghetto in the good ol' sizzlin summertime
Suppose the streets were all on fire
Flames like tempers leaping higher
Suppose you lived there all your life
Do you think that you would mind?

Chorus
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man
And it might begin to reach you
Why we give a damn

Spoken:

"I think everybody is born naked. So we are all human. Until I find somebody who was born with clothes on I ain't gonna figure they are no more than me. That's the way I look at it."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: Wolfgang
Date: 20 Oct 00 - 05:19 AM

Allan,
Thanks a lot. It is the song I was looking for. I always liked the Johnstons' performance of it.
I still don't know why they say it's a Joni Mitchell song. Or is it?

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: Allan C.
Date: 24 Oct 00 - 10:14 AM

I don't know why either, Wolfgang. An extensive search at jonimitchell.com (the most extensive resource I have found) makes no mention of the song. I have not been able to locate anything to make me think that it was authored by anyone other than Spanky and Our Gang. I have the old S.&O.G. album in my collection - which is not readily accessable. I will see if I can locate it in the next few days and check the credits.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: L R Mole
Date: 24 Oct 00 - 11:02 AM

It's on S&OG's Greatest Hits, which is on CD. I think it was originally hooked to Mayor Lindsey's "Give a Damn" campaign; I used to have a button for that. Be interesting to find out if the language got it banned from the radio, in those days (I seem to recall them performing it on the old Smothers Brothers show, which WAS killed by the powers that be. But that's another story.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: Wolfgang
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:53 AM

The Joni Mitchell attribution by the Johnstons was my error, sorry. I looked it up once more on the record sleeve and they say "...sing ...Joni Mitchell's 'Both sides now' and 'Give a damn'." I read the 'Joni Mitchell' as referring to both songs following, but I see now it can be read as referring only to the first song mentioned.

One bit for the lyrics above: I think it might be 'Times' with a capital T in the first verse, meaning a newspaper.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give a damn
From: Allan C.
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 07:53 AM

You are most certainly right about the "Times", Wolfgang. I wish I could be sure of "There always night". It sorta makes sense but doesn't feel right when I read it and sing it. I feel confident about the rest of the lyrics.