Songs about Fidel and Che

Subject: RE: Songs about Fidel and Che
From: GUEST,Diolch
Date: 23 Apr 23 - 08:04 AM

Of course, Cubans also write and perform songs about their own history. You can see from the audience reaction on this video how popular, for example, Silvio Rodriguez' song about the Bay of Pigs is:

Silvio Rodríguez - Playa Girón (on youtube)

This genre of Cuban folk music is called Nueva Trova and it emerged in the late 1960s at about the time singer-songwriter folk was on a wave of popularity in other cultures closely linked with Cuba.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nueva_trova

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 23 - 11:06 PM

Lyr Add: Los Companeros (Allan Taylor) is above and a separate lyrics thread here at Mudcat where there are a few remarks and a link there that might be helpful.

Also this.

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 23 - 10:53 PM

There was a question about this song over on Facebook, so I'm bringing it to the top to be found easily.

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 05:20 AM

Hilariously hagiographic YouTube of Hasta Siempre, Comandante. Lovely song; followed by the Buena Vista Social Club version

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:35 AM

And another
jim Carroll

D7 THE BALLAD OF THE BIG CIGARS                                
(1968)

We heard Fidel speak a number of times after that. He was never without a cigar. (See note to "The Compañeros")
words and music: Ewan MacColl
© 1968 Ewan MacColl, Ltd.

There's a little sun-drenched island in the Caribbean Sea,
It used to be like paradise, all fun and gaiety;
You could take a plane from Florida, just ninety miles away,
And live there like an emperor for fifty bucks a day.

Chorus:       Happy days at an end ...
               Uncle Sam, the poor old sod, ain't got a friend.

There were servants cheap and plentiful, the natives were in debt;
But for sportsmen on vacation there was faro and roulette;
And if you fancied other sports you flashed a dollar bill
And regiments of whores were there your pleasures to fulfill. (chorus)

The government took orders from the local C.I.A.
And always served the interests of the good old USA;
The natives they all knew their place and did what they were told,
Hotels were air-conditioned and the beer was always cold. (chorus)

One day in nineteen-fifty-six, the year was almost run,
Ten-thousand U.S. citizens lay browning in the sun,
When a certain hairy Cuban, regardless of the risk,
Lit a big cigar and burnt those U.S. arses to a crisp. (chorus)

Well, the gangsters and the bankers, all the con-men and the crimps,
The corporation lawyers, all the bully-boys and pimps,
Shouting, 'FREEDOM!' and 'DEMOCRACY!' (and other thrilling cries)
Flew back to God's own country like ten-thousand blue-arsed flies. (chorus)

One by one, Batista's outposts were attacked and overrun,
By a band of compañeros led by him they call The Man;
He lit a big Havana as they rested at the halt,
Then through Oriente Province went just like a dose of salts. (chorus)

Fidel puffed a king-sized Uppmann and Las Villas province fell;
He lit a Monte Cristo and Batista ran like hell;
Then he lit a Simon Bolivar and overran the south
And Big Daddy in the White House started foaming at the mouth. (chorus)

So the pimps and exiled gangsters who had run the gambling rigs,
Early on a summer's morning landed at the Bay of Pigs;
Fidel puffed a big Partagas, and then he shouted, 'Scram!'
And the Bay of Pigs invasion force was smoked just like a ham. (chorus)

Now, that little sun-drenched island's full of folks who smoke cigars,
You can smell the fine aroma in Peru and Panama;
And when miners in Bolivia rise up to claim their rights,
You can bet your life that Fidel's big Havana's burning bright. (chorus)

When he lights a Larrañaga, Guatemalan workers rise;
When he puffs a Castenado, Venezuelans organise;
And Colombian guerrillas in their jungle bivouacs
Use the glow of his Corona as the signal to attack. (chorus)

But the wind that blows from Cuba's cold in Washington D.C.,
Where Big Daddy's in the White House, sick with insecurity;
And every night he dreams he's roasting on a funeral pyre,
While Fidel's Ramon Allones sets the U.S.A. on fire. (chorus)

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 15 - 03:59 PM

Very,VERY nice.

Thank You for sharing.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle
What socialism did .... should be tried before an international tribunal.

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 18 Apr 15 - 07:23 AM

such heroic optimism. we could do with some more of that these days when opposition to the american empire is a lot a less positive - on this side of the atlantic at least

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Apr 15 - 03:45 AM

Another:
Jim Carroll

THE COMPANEROS
Ewan MacColl

The good ship Granma lies at anchor in the harbour,
Waiting for the evening tide to bring high water:
It's bound for Cuba she must go,
Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Ocean;
She's carrying a human cargo,
Eighty-three good companeros,
Each one burning with determination to be free.

Chorus 1:
Against Batista!
The Fidelistas!
Courage was their only armour as they fought at Fidel's side with Che Guevara!

Ten days out from Mexico, these companeros
Landed on the Cuban beach — Los Colorados;
And Fidel said, 'This year will see
Our country and its people free, or else we will be martyrs.
We've only guns enough for twenty,
The enemy has arms a-plenty,
Meet him, then defeat him, and he'll keep us well supplied!

Chorus 1

Five weeks later in the Canyon del Arroyo,
The people's army numbered eighteen companeros;
Hungry, weak, but unafraid,
They're learning revolution's trade in the high Sierra Maestra;
And in the mountains winds are blowing,
Bearing seeds of hope and sowing
Crops in Cuban earth that mark the birth of victory.

Chorus 2:
On, Companeros!
To El Uvero!
Courage was their only armour as they fought (etc).

They fought their way across the peak of El Turquino,
Joined by peasant bands and men from Santiago,
They faced Batista's tanks and planes
And drove them down into the plains from the high Sierra Maestra;
They drove the gangsters from Las Villas,
Straight across the Cordilleras;
Santa Clara fell to Che Guevara and was free!

Chorus 1

The fire lit on that Cuban beach by Fidel Castro
Shines all the way to Terra del Fuego;
Its sparks are blown upon the breeze,
And men rise up from off their knees when they see the night is burning;
It blazes up in Venezuela,
Bolivia and Guatemala —
Lights the road that men must go in order to be free.

Chorus 3:
On, Companeros! Americanos!
For a people's free America! Fidel has shown the way with Che Guevara.

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 03:35 PM

Allan Taylor is the composer. The song is 'Los Companeros', from Allan's album 'Hotels and Dreamers' released in 2003.

LOS COMPANEROS
Allan Taylor

You see them in old Havana,
Playing cards, smoking cigares ...
And they're polishing chromium fenders
On their big old yankee cars.

Manuel sits in la casa de rosa,
Drinking rum, watching the girls ...
He whistles at the beautiful Maria
And she smiles and tosses her curls.

Now the bartender strums his guitar
And the rhythm plays out in the street.
Maria moves with the passion
As her body sways in the heat.

And the old guys, smiling with pleasure,
For a moment they're young and they're strong.
And the young girls are giving them flowers
As they sing their victory song.

REFRAIN:
Once we were bold compañeros,
Running guns from the Florida keys,
On the beach of Santiago de Cuba,
We were fighting with Fidel and Che.

He talks of the great revolution
In words of sadness and pride.
And the medals he wears
Are the scars that he bears –
And he drinks for the friends who died.

We were farmers, we were poets and we were hungry.
All we wanted was our own piece of land.
We were fighting for our wives and children
And freedom for every man!

REFRAIN

Now the yankees come for the fishing
And their pockets are loaded with greens.
Ten dollars will buy you a woman
or a tank of gasoline.
And the young kids are leaving the island
And the old guys have nothing to say.
Manuel is living on dreams of the past
And tonight he'll drink it away …

REFRAIN

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 03:30 PM

Sorry ,just found it ,thanks

Subject: RE: Fidel and che
From: GUEST,#
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 03:30 PM

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/allan+taylor/los+companeros_21097011.html

Subject: Fidel and che
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 03:25 PM

Looking for a song about Fidel and che .. There's a line in it ,bringing guns from the Florida keys , I think it was composed by a uk folk singer ,thanks for any help , willie