The Lyricist's Son & Daughter-

Oh, maybe you could help clear this matter up. Earlier in this thread we were discussing a "Clive Woolf" who occasionally attended events at Cecil Sharp House and whether he was related to your father. Our conclusion was that he was unrelated. Is that true or did we miss another vital clue?

While we're waiting for more commentary, here's one of my favorite uplifting housing songs, composed by Bev Grant some 30 years ago:

Words and music by Beverly Grant
© 1976 Human Condition Music
In Broadside, #165, pp. 18

Together We Can Move Mountains

Chorus:

Together, we can move mountains,
Alone, we can't move at all;
Together, we can move mountains,
Alone, we can't move at all.

You know, people, sometimes we despair
When we think we're alone and nothing's gonna change;
We get stepped on, abused, ignored and confused,
Made to suffer and told we're the blame. (CHO)

The ones who get rich, while we scrape to get by,
Know our unity means their defeat;
So they set as against one another, sister and brother, color 'gainst color,
Keeping us weak; they're keeping us weak. (CHO)

From the smallest seed a mighty tree can grow,
With its roots planted firmly in the ground;
We've got to reach for the sun, only then will we know,
All the love and the beauty and the life to be found. (CHO)

Notes from the Manuscript:

This organizing song was put together by Beverly Grant, one of the founding members of the New York City music group called The Human Condition. It's an unusual song in this collection as it celebrates the victory of a rent strike, and one at a massive co-operative housing complex:

"In 1975-76 a rent strike at Co-Op City in the Bronx involved upwards 60,000 people, most of whom had never participated in any type of organized struggle. I was asked to write some music for a film relating to this successful strike, and in listening to taped interviews with rent strikers, was moved by the statement of a young Puerto Rican woman who said, 'Together, we can move mountains!'"

I first heard this sung at a gathering of Songs of Freedom & Struggle back in the late 1970's, with Bev leading the song and a hundred or so voices filling in the chorus. What a great an inspiring song!

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter