Well, this HAS been a fine to-do, hasn't it? Bob, Jr. wanted a song which obviously started life as a parody -- well, an extension maybe -- of "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue," which started life as the Badger Clark poem "A Border Affair."

Now, it also seems that most people here, not being familiar with the Ronnie Gilbert performance of the song Bob Jr. wanted, went off on their own tangent about the Badger Clark and Bill Somon song, since, among other things, that's what the heading of the thread was about.

My guess is that the song Ronnie recorded is much more modern, possibly written by or for her, and it certainly bears only slight resemblance to the older song. Now that Bob, Jr. has printed the lyric he had in mind, all that remains is to find out the real authors' name(s) and put the whole thing in the Digital Tradition.

When I sing the older version, I always change one line (I don't have to change the gender). I change "She was Mex and I was White" to "Still want me for that gambling fight." It's too hard to explain to today's audiences why the original was written as it was, so I change it.

Bob Clayton