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Req: Songs of political despair
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Subject: Folklore: Songs of political despair....... From: Fi Date: 12 May 10 - 02:48 PM Can anyone contribute any songs of political despair appropriate to the times we find ourselves in.... we might have occasion for a few in the next little (hopefully) while. Cheers |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST,mg Date: 12 May 10 - 03:44 PM Can't help you. My philosophy is that life can be trouble enough without adding to misery via music. I prefer songs of hope but that is just me. mg |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs of political despair....... From: Bonzo3legs Date: 12 May 10 - 04:42 PM Can anyone find songs of political delight? |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Richard Bridge Date: 12 May 10 - 06:33 PM A Living Wage Hilda's cabinet Band Rigs of the Times Thousands of 60s and 80s protest songs. A-Begging I will go. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Jim Carroll Date: 12 May 10 - 06:56 PM "Thousands of 60s and 80s protest songs." Songs of hope Richard - those were the days before our lives were taken over by 'the suits' and when we believed we could sing the shit away. "A-Begging I will go." You have to be joking - one of the most 'two fingers up to the world' that I know. All the political songs I know and sang were 'up yours' songs; can't think of ones of despair. Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Richard Bridge Date: 12 May 10 - 07:00 PM Masters of War. Eve of Destruction. Must be many more Lines come to mind "He turns to his garden, now he's turned 65" from another song "I just wanted to take a broom and sweep the bloody floor" |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Richard Bridge Date: 12 May 10 - 07:01 PM All my trials |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THAT WAY FOR THIS + MOVING ON From: Mr Fox Date: 12 May 10 - 09:05 PM Two by Oysterband All that way for this What we wanted was: chain lightning what we wanted was: eight miles high What we wanted was: free fall and our turn to fly What we wanted was: more fireworks everlasting 4th of July What we wanted was: more stars in a bluer sky All we wanted was something worth it worth the labour, worth the wait Then they take you up to the mountain you see too late. In the middle of a good time Truth gave me her icy kiss Look around, you must be joking All that way, all that for this What we wanted was: consolation the band of strangers, help for pain What we wanted was: to be sure no friends were lost in vain What we wanted was: aggravation a good cause and a bigger row What we wanted was: the whole plantation, now, now, now What we wanted was: rhyme and reason what we wanted was: another way what we get is: a tinpot heaven and we're too drunk to pray What we get is: the old machinery grinding on in the same old way What we need is the sweet republic - roll on Independence Day Moving on We walked these streets together, now we walk these streets alone We asked the man for justice and he handed us a stone In this great land of freedom we are taking up the slack We pushed the stone to the top of the hill & we watch it rolling back The way to hell is straight and sure The way to heaven is long The way to your heart is never ending So I just keep moving on - Moving on The way to your heart is never ending So I just keep moving on The brave are twisting in the wind, stupidity endures And men with no identity will try to borrow yours Danger is the lure for boys to help you now and then But they fall from the wire in a Bay of Pigs and they don't come round again I never felt myself alone or truly felt afraid Until the hour I understood, by friends we were betrayed Whose precious mouths are stopped with food, who cannot meet our eyes Who laugh about their principles and brush them off like flies |
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Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF A NOBODY From: Jim Carroll Date: 13 May 10 - 03:51 AM On second thoughts: MacColl wrote this for the 1968 Festival of Fools. It accompanied a news item commenting on the increase in the number of suicides of (mainly) men who had been presented with a watch by their employers and then forcibly retired from their jobs. It was referred to by psychiatrists at the time as 'The Gold Watch Syndrome' - retired people not being able to cope with retirement. LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF A NOBODY Tune; Six Dukes Went A-fishing. 1. As I was a-walking down by the Thames side I spied a dead body washed away by the tide. 2. Borne along on the river, the body draws near To the oily black water by Westminster Pier. 3. Grey-stubbled face with its halo of scum; Eyes staring sightless at the high noonday sun. 4. The river-police take him by his shoulders and feet, And bundle him round with a tarpaulin sheet. 5. They took him to Southwark, to the mortuary there; They hosed down his body and shaved off his hair. 6. They weighed him and measured him under mercury arcs, They noted his scars and distinguishing marks. 7. Numbered he lies on a bed of white tiles, His life-story entered in the mortuary files. 8. They tagged his belongings, his clothes and a ring, A pipe, some tobacco and a small length of string. 9. A pension-book the bearing the name Thomas Black, An old-fashioned timepiece inscribed on the back. 10. For fifty years' service, for loyalty supreme- From grateful employers, this token of esteem. 11. A good quieter worker, not given to strife; Who never once questioned the boss in his life. 12. They gave him a watch when they bade him goodbye, So that he could measure his life slipping by. 13. It ticked through the empty days, loud in his ears; A bright death-watch beetle undermining the years. 14. Then one act of protest, one a moment of strife; They called it a crime when he took his own life. 15. Now this lump of grey silence has finished with time- He demanded so little-and that was his crime. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Richard Bridge Date: 13 May 10 - 03:54 AM Good one Jim. Shortly we will need the same for the massive rise in the unemployed that the Con-Doms will give us. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Jim Carroll Date: 13 May 10 - 04:25 AM 'Con-Doms' - wonderful Richard; I do hope you said it first. Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Richard Bridge Date: 13 May 10 - 04:34 AM It seemed to me that "Con-Dems" did not really convey the right impression. As far as I know my formulation is original. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Fi Date: 13 May 10 - 05:35 AM Yeah, up yours songs will certainly do too and I'm open to anything inspiring when I'm in the mood. Con-Doms is great.... one to be spread around ;-) Thanks for everything so far. Here's another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1-tcXX7bvo&feature=related |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: folkypaul Date: 13 May 10 - 06:05 AM Shouldn't that be Com-Dems PaulO |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GOLD WATCH BLUES From: brezhnev Date: 13 May 10 - 06:09 AM Cheers for the Lament for the Death of a Nobody, Jim. Puts me in mind of the Mick Softley song that Donovan made famous three years earlier on What's bin did... Gold Watch Blues I went up for my interview on the 4th day of july The personnel man he questioned me until I nearly cried Made me fill in forms until I shook with fear About the colour of my toilet roll and if my cousin's queer (chorus) Here's your gold watch and shackles for your chain And your piece of paper, to say you left here sane And if you've a son who wants a good career Just get him to sign on the dotted line and work for 50 years He asked me how many jobs I'd had before He nearly had a heart attack when I answered four Four jobs in 20 years, oh, this can never be We only take on men, who work on until they die He took me outside to where the gravestones stand in line This is where we bury them, in quickstone and in lime And if you come to work for us, on this you must agree That if you're going to die, please do it during tea? break This story that you've heard, you may think rather queer But it is the truth you'll be surprised to hear I did not want no job up on the board I just wanted to take a broom and sweep the bloody floor. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: folkypaul Date: 13 May 10 - 06:11 AM "The devil went down to London He was looking for a soul to steal. He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind And he was willing to make a deal" the question is, which one is the devil? PaulO |
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Subject: Lyr Add: PATRICK SHEEHAN From: Jim Carroll Date: 13 May 10 - 07:21 AM Interesting the way some subjects prod the thought processes awake - didn't think I knew any 'songs of political despair' until this came up. This is a song with enough despair in it to fell an elephant. I've included the notes to it as I believe it is an example of the way that some songs use despair to make a point and try to improve the situation. I believe that, in a way, MacColl's last verse for 'Nobody' adds that little touch of anger to despair. Jim Carroll PATRICK SHEEHAN (1857) TEXT: Broadside in the N.L.I. Written by Charles Joseph Kickham, under the pseudonym of Darby Ryan, Junior. First printed in The Kilkenny Journal, 7th October, 1857; ((Patrick Sheehan, a recruiting song for English recruiting officers)). My name is Patrick Sheehan, My years are thirty-four; Tipperary is my native place ? Not far from Galtymore; I came of honest parents ? But now they're lying low ? And many a pleasant day I spent In the Glen of Aherlow. My father died, I closed his eyes Outside our cabin door The Landlord and the Sheriff, too, Were there the day before ? And then my loving mother, And sisters three also, Were forced to go with broken hearts From the Glen of Aherlow. For three long months, in search of work, I wandered far and near; I went unto the Poorhouse For to see my mother dear ? The news I heard nigh broke my heart; But still in all my woe I blessed the friends who made their graves In the Glen of Aherlow. Bereft of home, and kith and kin ? With plenty all around ? I starved within my cabin, And slept upon the ground! But cruel as my lot was, I ne'er did hardship know, Till I joined the English army, Far away from Aherlow. Rouse up there, says the Corporal, You lazy Hirish hound, Why, don't you hear, you sleepy dog, The call 'to arms' sound?» Alas! I had been dreaming Of days long, long ago ? I awoke before Sebastopol, And not in Aherlow. I groped to find my musket ? How dark I thought the night; O, blessed God, it was not dark, It was the broad day-light! And when I found that I was blind, My tears began to flow; I longed for even a pauper's grave In the Glen of Aherlow. A poor neglected mendicant All in the public street, My nine months' pension now being out, I beg from all I meet; As I joined my country's tyrant My face I'll never show Along my kind old neighbours In the Glen of Aherlow. Oh! blessed Virgin Mary, Mine is a mournful tale, A poor blind prisoner here am I In Dublin's dreary jail; Struck blind within the trenches Where I never feared the foe, And now I'll never see again My own sweet Aherlow. Then Irish youths, dear countrymen, Take heed of what I say, For if you join the English ranks You'll surely rue the day, So whenever you are tempted A-soldiering to go, Remember poor blind Sheehan Of the Glen of Aherlow. NOTE: On 28th September, 1857, The Freeman's Journal published the following information:0"A young man named Patrick Sheehan was brought up in custody of Police-constable Lynam, charged with causing an obstruction to the thoroughfare in Grafton-street. The constable stated that the prisoner was loitering in Grafton-street for the purpose of begging, having a placard on his breast setting forth that he had served in the Crimea in the 55th regiment; that he had lost his sight in the trenches before Sebastopol, and that he was discharged on a pension of six pence per day for nine months; and that this period being now expired, he was now obliged to have recourse to begging to support himself. A Crimean medal was found on his person ..." The prisoner was committed for seven days for begging. Reading this article, Kickham saw there an opportunity "to discourage enlistment in England's service by exposing the savage ingratitude she displays to those who become disabled while soldiering for her." (Quoted in James Maher's anthology The Valley near Slievenamon, p. 85.) With the song, the Kilkenny Journal printed a letter from the author explaining that he had done his best to compose his verses in the popular style; "I wrote them tough and vigorous, such as the old ballads of the people used to be, that they may seize on the popular ear and produce the intended effect on the popular heart, and mind, and spirit of the country. And for this object there is nothing like a rough, but racy street-ballad . . ." Kickham was successful in his attempt, for the ballad was soon sung in the streets all over Ireland; it appeared on many broadsides, the only changes being in the punctuation. It is said to have shamed the government into inquiring about the ex-soldier, to whom a life pension of a shilling a day was granted. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Dug Date: 13 May 10 - 07:31 AM Try 'The follies of pollies' by John Dengate. (Tune - Euabalong Ball): "The follies of pollies are rather a rort, I'm no longer certain which side to support, I voted for Labor through thick and through thin, Perhaps I'm to blame for the mess that we're in..." |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Ron Davies Date: 13 May 10 - 07:32 AM I would think "Such A Parcel of Rogues In A Nation" would fit this thread--sounds like many would agree with the title at least. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: bankley Date: 13 May 10 - 07:35 AM "Change" which is posted here somewhere.. by Jt Oglesby and me (Thunder Thieves) "Break Even" which I'll get Old Dude to post one of these days.. I have a bunch... so does Little Hawk btw |
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Subject: Lyr Add: RIGS OF THE TIME From: GUEST,How about this from singer songwriter Bill P Date: 13 May 10 - 08:56 AM RIGS OF THE TIME
A few new verses (written March '09) to an old favourite which will go on as long as people are singing.
Here's to those City bankers, I must bring them in |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Fi Date: 13 May 10 - 06:50 PM When I mentioned the Con-Doms to a friend she said "what, to cover up a bunch of knobs"..... made me laugh anyway ;-) |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 13 May 10 - 07:15 PM Yes, there is this monster of a song, sung by Lisa Kelly, from St. Patrick's Breastplate. Beautiful....they sent me the sheet music, and arrangement, as well. As soldiers are chasing down some 'believers'..the believers(Christians), come to a clearing, in the forest. They know that if they go into the clearing, they will be easily seen, rounded up and or killed. Rather than enter the clearing, they shape-shift into deer, and this song is sung by them, as the soldiers move through them looking for their prey. The soldiers neither see, nor hear the Christians, who now look like deer, as this song is sung. ENJOY!!!: Prayer for Protection Most Sincerely, GfS |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 13 May 10 - 11:33 PM Fi, and any and all others, who may be interested. The best we can do, as musicians, is to wallow in the despair, or try to describe it better....but rather, give them the opposite, from all the dark bickering. Give them peace and hope..and point the way. Give them beauty! Nobody gives a shit how hip you think you are, and/or how you can get it across, after all the other songs of that sort, has just worn out and grown tired! As a composer, and recording artist, sound engineer etc. etc. I'm sharing this with you. If the beauty is there, and its pure communication, people begin to see the greater...and it is NOT the political, and economic strife, you would have been the part of something greater, that will outlast 'them'!~ Practice, practice practice..and do your homework. CARE!...It may be the only weapon in this struggle that brings peace! GfS |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: dick greenhaus Date: 13 May 10 - 11:53 PM For Trad material. try Wheels of the World On a more modern(?) vein, there's always "Eve of Destruction" And my pet one, The Merry Minuet (Rioting in Africa) which, sadly, never seems to go out-of-date. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST Date: 14 May 10 - 04:19 AM "All the Good times are past and gone" by Mr Fox comes to mind, it is not political but it's a bloody good song. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Stewie Date: 14 May 10 - 11:28 AM 'Sean O Duibhir an Ghleanna'. There are at least 2 threads devoted to it. --Stewie. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: Jim Carroll Date: 14 May 10 - 01:23 PM Somewhere in our collection we have a song we recorded (from a very fine traditional singer) entitled 'Seven Ways For A Man To Die' - will pass it on if I can find it, or if nobody else comes up with it beforehand. In the meantime, a story we recorded that should be despairing (not political) but somehow wasn't. A farmer a few miles from here was working in the field when he jagged his leg on a piece of rusty barbed wire. He didn't do anything about the scratch, which turned septic and became so infected that he was taken into Ennis Hospital, where he was told that the leg had become so bad that it would have to be removed. His neighbour came to visit him after the operation and asked him how it went. "Good and bad", he was told. "What went wrong" asked the neighbour? "They operated and cut the wrong leg off" came the reply. "That's terrible", your man sympathised. "It's ok", the farmer said, "the other one's getting better". Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Date: 14 May 10 - 03:40 PM Anyone ever hear of a song called "Snatchin' Defeat From the Jaws of Victory?" And, just when things seemed to be going so well...... |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 14 May 10 - 04:54 PM John Prine's "Paradise": "...Mr. Peabody's coal train has has hauled it away." Charles |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair....... From: GUEST,Will Branch Date: 14 May 10 - 05:21 PM Not trying to promote myself here, but I wrote a bunch of songs in that mode and put them on a CD - some of the song titles speak for themselves: "Poverty," "Fog of War," "Deluge," ... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/branch2 |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: Lighter Date: 25 Jun 20 - 06:55 AM Re: "Patrick Sheehan"/ "Glen of Aherlow" above: St. Paul (Minn.) Daily Globe (Dec. 16, 1885), p. 8: “I could lie on my narrow hammock and hear him, from an adjoining cell [in the Hennepin Co. jail], trilling forth that fine old Irish ballad, ‘The Glen of Aherloe [sic].'" Kickham's lyrics appeared in the New York World (Dec. 26 *and* Dec. 30, 1865, as an example of a Fenian song), and, anonymously without comment or context, in the Denver Rocky Mountain News (Feb. 14, 1866). |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: Jack Campin Date: 25 Jun 20 - 08:11 AM The tango song "El Cambalache". |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: GUEST,I Signed Up for What? Date: 02 Jul 20 - 09:17 PM As a perpetual contrarian, I am proposing this ditty I recall from Malvina Reynolds as the new Natural Anthem of the human race: "So you think that you've hit bottom, Oh no, there's a bottom below, There's a low below the low you know, Bet you didn't know how far you could go, Down" |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: oldhippie Date: 02 Jul 20 - 09:30 PM HOW FAR WE HAVE COME Bill Frederick When our fathers came to this golden land There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand And a few million Indians running around Now look what we've made of the little they found Theyre's cities of silver that shine in the night Churches of splendor and halls of delight And only an echo of Indian drums Who can deny how far we have come The slave ships they came with the whip and the rack And a million black people with scars on their back Picked cotton, drew water, and slept in the cold With a bible for comfort they were happy and cold The laws they were passed, slavery went Our lives integrated at least six percent In the sharecroppers shack and the big city slum Who can deny how far we have come The immigrants came from the green Irish shore From Poland and Russia, ten million and more Germany, Italy, all the world round To settle our ghettos and immigrant towns Their brains and their bodies they put to the wheel To build our great factories and towers of steel To march to our battles and carry our guns Who can deny how far we have come Now all through the Andes, they've heard of our name On the factory wall, in the palace of shame They drink Coca Cola and the times that they spend Goes straight to the pockets of our businessmen To pay for our Fords, and our split level homes Our Hi-Fis and records and six percent loans Our profits protected with dictators guns Who can deny how far we have come In Asia and Africa, they're learning too How free enterprise can do wonders for you South Africas prisons are bursting with men Barbed wire keeps the Vietnamese in Where elections are daydreams that never get far American weapons are there standing guard We're ready to fight for the lands that we run Who can deny how far we have come Our fears they are many though they're seldom saved They're black and they're yellow and they're brown and they're red They see through the legend, they smell the decay They're learning to fight the American way And we in our armchairs are quick to condemn Our bankbooks are falling, our profits might end The breaking of change is our funeral hum Who can deny how far we have come When our fathers came to this golden land There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand And a few million Indians running around Now look what we've made of the little they found Theyre's cities of silver that shine in the night Churches of splendor and halls of delight And only an echo of Indian drums Who can deny how far we have come |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: YorkshireYankee Date: 04 Jul 20 - 08:16 PM A couple more: (Note: neither of the blue clickies worked when I tested them, but am including them anyway, in case it was a temporary glitch. They're both on Mudcat, if you do a search.) Poverty Knock Prospect, Providence, Perseverance By Keith Marsden The last verse is one of the most despairing I've ever heard (the rest of the song is about how the fellow singing it is looking forward to retirement after a lifetime of grindingly hard work): Though the pension's low still the prices rise, my wife's going out of her mind, And I'm no longer sure what it's all been for, the year long, lifelong grind. And I'd dust so long that my lungs have gone, and I cannot get my breath. I can't laugh or talk or even walk, and I long for the peace of death. |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: Vic Smith Date: 05 Jul 20 - 06:38 AM "Hard Times of Old England" The Copper Family (particularly the way Ron sang it.) |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: GUEST,Andrew W-R Date: 05 Jul 20 - 12:29 PM https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=72800 Pete Coe's Sold Down The River Again |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: GUEST,John from Kemsing Date: 05 Jul 20 - 12:43 PM It may not relate to man`s earthly problems but how about Pete Seeger`s "The Worlds Last Whale". |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: GUEST Date: 06 Jul 20 - 04:32 AM 'Frost was set hard on the field' or 'Where were you the in our need' chorus: "And where were you then in our need When we called for your aid and we cried Oh help us our children to feed But you turned your head and passed by" |
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Subject: RE: Req: Songs of political despair From: oldhippie Date: 06 Jul 20 - 12:26 PM THE LAST WAR Danny Howe At twelve last night we had our last war We’re never gonna have one anymore Bombs were falling rapidly From sea to shining sea People were dying everywhere They died so senselessly Oh look at Mother Russia now She’s a wasted mass of land And the good old USA You’ll find her buried in the sand At twelve last night we had our last war Never gonna have one anymore The soldiers did their duty For a land that lost its form The soldiers did their duty They were told to fight alone Oh someone get the children Put their parents by their side Someone get the others Who’s lives were denied At twelve last night we had our last war Never gonna be one anymore Bombs were falling rapidly From sea to shining sea Mankind never did achieve Peace and unity Oh look at Mother Russia now She’s a wasted mass of land And the good old USA You’ll find her buried in the sand Good old Africa hasn’t got a friend Good old Israel hasn’t got a land Good old Europe hasn’t got a man. |
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