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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Joe Offer Lyr Add: Banks of Marble + New Banks of Marble (6) DTCorr: Banks of Marble 28 Jul 03


I thought I'd post a correction version of the song. The main difference from the entry in the Digital Tradition is that the first verse is kind of an introduction, and doesn't have a chorus after it. Seems to make more sense to me.
-Joe Offer-


BANKS OF MARBLE
(Les Rice)

I've traveled 'round this country.
From shore to shining shore;
It really made me wonder
The things I heard and saw.

I saw the weary farmer,
Plowing sod and loam;
I saw the auction hammer
Just a-knocking down his home.

CHORUS
But the banks are made of marble,
With a guard at every door,
And the vaults are stuffed with silver
That the farmer (worker, etc.*) sweated for.


I saw the seaman standing
Idly by the shore,
I heard the bosses saying,
"Got no work for you no more."

I saw the weary miner
Scrubbing coal dust from his back,
And I heard his children crying,
"Got no coal to heat the shack."

**

I've seen my brothers (good people) working
Throughout this mighty land,
I prayed we'd get together
And together make a stand.

Final Chorus:
Then we'd own those banks of marble
With a guard at every door (or: With no guard at any door)
And we'd share those vaults of silver
That the workers sweated for!


*change to fit verse

**Additional verse by John Braxton:
    (I've seen my sisters working
    On the job they're underpaid
    While at home they work for nothing
    Half the night and all the day)



Copyright 1950 by Stormking Music Inc.

Source: Carry It On, songbook by Pete Seeger & Bob Reiser, 1985
and Collected Reprints from Sing Out!
@political @labor
filename[ BNKMRBLE
TUNE FILE: BNKMRBLE
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

The Seeger book adds some updates to include genders and the like. Seeger's updates are in parentheses. The basic text I've posted is from Sing Out! - apparently published a year after Les Rice wrote the song in 1950.


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