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Lyr Req: Housing Songs
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Liz the Squeak Date: 20 Feb 01 - 08:06 PM Les Barker wrote a moving poem called 'Hello dere, I'se yo new neighbour' which was rather apt for the times, about a white street that gets it's first black families, and the reactions to it. Mostly about people's double standards..... Which I could find which book it's in..... LTS |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 20 Feb 01 - 12:57 PM Sinsull, thanks for trying but just mentioning the word "house" doesn't do it. Now, I did broaden "housing" to include a few alternatives such as treehouses and houseboats but not "shoes" – well, maybe I should reconsider that. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: SINSULL Date: 20 Feb 01 - 12:21 PM Does "House Of The Rising Sun" count? Just heard a real heart breaker from a Utah Phillips' CD. Something like "Hop on Jennie Hold on to the baby The sheriff is a'calling This time he ain't foolin'" Annamill has the CD and title. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 20 Feb 01 - 12:00 PM Roger, Thanks for responding. "Hey,Ho,Cook & Rowe" is definately one of my keepers, as is Leadbelly's "Bourgeois Blues." But keep digging! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:37 AM Mrrzy, Hah, a nibble! You seem to have some promising leads: Dreadlocks can't live in a tenement or Weela Wallia. Moving Day is in the collection and is a keep, as is The Bold Tenant Farmer from the Clancy Brothers. Bess The Landlord's Daughter is an old favorite but too peripheral for the collection, although I do plan to include Young Edmond who was so cruelly murdered by his financee's father, landlord of a waterfront tavern. But keep digging. Yes, I do have The Diggers' Song. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:37 AM This is a typically vague response, I'm afraid. There was a record by the Critics group in UK in the 1970s (?)called Sweet Thames Flow Softly which had one song about a tenants group taking on the local council who wanted to evict them. I think it was the Ballad of Cook & Rowe (the two leaders of the group who may have been taken to court). Possibly written by Ewan MacColl who was associated with the group. I'm sure some more knowledgeable English folkie will supply the details. Leadbelly's "Black White and Brown" deals with the problem of getting housing in Washington if you were a black ex-con from the country. Then there's Make me a Pallet on your floor about crashing with a "friend" . RtS |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Mrrzy Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:24 AM Aha, got the beginning, if not the title. And I've BEEN to all these places on my Clancy Brothers Tour of Ireland! One evening of late out of Bandon I strayed - anybody can tell me the title and get me off this block will earn my gratitude... thanks! Also, I make no claims to spelling these town names properly, my apologies. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Mrrzy Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:21 AM Nope, not yet. How about Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark-red love knot into her long black hair (...)? (OK, very peripheral, but a lovely song, and it at least mentions a landlord's daughter...) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Mrrzy Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:17 AM How about Dreadlocks can't live in a tenement? Or Weela Wallia (the children in the tenements are very WISE children...) - not to mention Movin' Day (slightly peripheral), and Our House, and what is that one, I've got the chorus in mind but that's no help, it goes diddly oh -toh diddly oh toh diddly oh toh toh tum, diddly oh -toh diddly oh toh diddly oh toh toh tum, diddly oh ta dum diddly oh toh diddly oh toh tum, diddly oh taddle doodly dad-oh, it's on the same album as Barnyards of Delgaty, help! What IS it??? Mental block! "I spate in me fist and I picked up me stick And down the coach road like a deer I did trip I cared not for bailiff, landlord, or Old Nick And I sang like a lark in the morning! It's about a huge argument between landlord and tenant. It'll come to me as soon as I click Submit, I'm sure... |
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Subject: Lyr Add: LOVE ME, I'M YOUR LANDLORD From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 20 Feb 01 - 10:09 AM Well, let's toss out another song. My favorite criteria for inclusion in this book are: good poetry, general relevance, local color, organizing relevance, historical relevance, familiar tune or parody of familiar song. I generally prefer humor rather than despair. I love background details, including clippings. Here's another example: LOVE ME, I'M YOUR LANDLORD (Written by Dale Cohen & Hugh McGuinness © 1981) Tenant organizers from the university town of Ann Arbor, Michigan Tune: parody of Love Me, I'm a Liberal by Phil Oches I remember when I was a tenant, I remember the strife and the pain; I swore to reform the system, That produced such ill-gotten gain, So now that I'm your landlord, You've no reason left to complain – So, love me, love me, love me, I'm your landlord! I helped form the first tenants union, For that I should get a gold star; I love each one of my tenants, I even lend them my car; But this talk about rent control, That's going a bit too far...(as above) I cried when my tenants had no heat, Tears ran down my spine; I mourned when that old furnace broke down, As though I'd lost a grandparent of mine; But, you know, they had it coming, When they were late with the rent last time... I cheered when old Epstein was rent struck, My faith in the system restored; And I'm glad that Trony went bankrupt, They charged rents no one could afford, And I love each one of my tenants, But I hope that they don't move next door... Oh, those people who work for McKinley, Should all hang their heads in shame; I don't understand how their minds work – Property maintenance is part of the game; But if you ask me to roll back my rents, I'll have the cops take down your name... New or old contributions greatly appreciated. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 18 Feb 01 - 05:56 PM Thanks, Liz. Your find certainly conveys a sense of neighborhood/battle zone. Reminds me of an arson song a friend wrote for me when I was complaining there was lots of arson but no songs about it. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAST HOUSE IN OUR STREET^^ From: Liz the Squeak Date: 18 Feb 01 - 05:37 PM It's by Colum Sands, sorry to mislead you earlier.....
The last house in our street is the one that we are living in
The flowers in our garden are made of bricks and broken glass.
Wee Albert Mooney, was blinded by a petrol bomb
Big rubber bullet killed little Johnny Morrisey
We made the world and Belfast is a part of it
There's a war so there is, between us and them there is,
The eyes of the world have concrete curtains
The last house in our street, is the one that we are living in, Maybe not what you were looking for, but a very emotive song anyway. It's on the New Directions in the Old CD, and I hope I got all the words down right... LTS
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Liz the Squeak Date: 18 Feb 01 - 05:24 PM Hang on, I'll see if I can get the CD cover. LTS |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 18 Feb 01 - 05:21 PM Liz, any more clues? Where is this song from? When was it put together? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Housing Songs From: Liz the Squeak Date: 18 Feb 01 - 05:02 PM Try 'The last house in our street' I think it was written by Robb Lowe, but it is certainly sung by Roy Bailey on several albums. It isn't in the DT, but the alternate line refrain goes 'throw the ball against the wall and back to me'. LTS |
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Subject: Lyr Add: YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE OUR HOMES AWAY From: GUEST,Landlady's Daughter Date: 18 Feb 01 - 02:59 PM Maybe it's time to update my working draft of Housing and Other Neighborhood Organizing Songs, samples of which were published in BROADSIDE, #165, back in 1985. What I'm looking for are songs describing the trials and tribulations, as well as small victories, of those seeking shelter in a market society. Here's an example from the gentrification front in Cincinatti during the late 1970s; this song describes the strong attachment people have for their neighborhoods, the planners and speculators who threaten them, and their determination to fight back. YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE OUR HOMES AWAY (Written by Tony Heriza © 1979 Further adapted by Charles Ipcar in 1981) Tune: "Mountain Song" © by Holly Near Recorded on Folkways Records: We Won't Move FS 5287 I have lived in this city, As my mother did before me, And you can't just take my home away, Without me fighting, No, you can't just take my home away! Well, you make your city plans, Try your damnedest to ignore us, But you can't just take our homes away, Without us fighting, No, you can't just take our homes away! These old buildings raised our children, And 'tho it's true they need repairing, You can't just take our homes away…(as above) We have lived in this city, Through hard times we've helped each other, And you can't just take our homes away… You drive a big Mercedes car, You have a fancy education, But you can't just take our homes away… And if you think you can displace us, Then you haven't seen our faces, No, you can't just take our homes away… We have lived in this city, Ties are deep and they are many, And you can't just take our homes away, Without us fighting, No you can't just take our homes away, Not with us watching, No, you can't just take our homes away! New and old contributions would be appreciated. I'll be happy to comment on any housing song mysteries, having access to some 300 songs from all over, with some going back to Elizabethan times. |
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