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Subject: two good arms? From: reeebop Date: 29 Dec 99 - 11:58 PM i learned this song a while ago from a friend and i was wondering if anyone had any background information about it. the chorus is something like and all who know these two good arms know i never had to rob or kill i can live by my own two hands and live well... and all my life i have struggled to rid the earth of all such crimes. and also if you have any suggestions for harmonies or alternate parts i would really appreciate it. |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: Rick Fielding Date: 30 Dec 99 - 12:03 AM Hi. It's the story of Sacco and Vanzetti, who were two anarchists executed in Boston. Woody Guthrie did a whole album of songs about them. Should be lots of stuff on the "net". Rick |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: DonMeixner Date: 30 Dec 99 - 12:05 AM Hey Bop, I think Fred Small wrote this song. Its about Sacco and Vanzetti. Two anarchist who were very likely framed and executed for the murder of some people. Their political and ethnic persuasion made them easy targets for Kangaroo justice in the first quarter of this century. Check out their names in the encyclopedia. Don |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: DonMeixner Date: 30 Dec 99 - 12:06 AM Bob , No sooner did I send it as Fred Small as the author when I'm sure I am wrong. Now I think its Charlie ???? who wrote the song. Don |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: katlaughing Date: 30 Dec 99 - 12:25 AM There is a whole bunch of info on them at a special site for the 70th anniversary of their execution. Just click here. If you do a search with their names on Yahoo, there is a ton of info and I noticed several books have been published on them. kat |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: katlaughing Date: 30 Dec 99 - 12:33 AM On a CD of Woody Guthrie's called Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti, there is a song called Two Good Men. Wondering if it is the same one? |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: Jon Freeman Date: 30 Dec 99 - 01:41 AM I've just had a look at my Christy Moore LP with Sacco and Vanzetti on and he gives a reference of Folkways FH 5485A for the Woody Guthrie album. Jon |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: Pete Peterson Date: 30 Dec 99 - 10:41 AM The song is in Rise Up Singing and since I'm posting from work I can't remember the author except that he's written some other good ones.(sure it's NOT Woody, who Did write "italian red wine") What makes it remarkable is that he wrote it using Vanzetti's speech to the judge,( following the rhetorical question "Have you any reason why the sentence of death should not be passed upon you?" ) as a prose poem. When my daughter got interested in the case she found a book which had a photocopy of the page in the receipt book where Vanzetti the fish peddler sold eels to the wholesaler at a time and place that made it impossible to be committing a robbery in Dedham. Nuts. When she said "but why wouldn't they listen" I didn't have an answer and still dont. |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: lamarca Date: 30 Dec 99 - 02:50 PM Andy Irvine also wrote a good song about Sacco and Vanzetti, called "Facing the Chair". It's on Patrick Street's first album. The contention is that Judge Webster Thayer wanted to make an example of them as part of his political aspirations - in his viewpoint, they were Communists/anarchists and so deserved to die whether they were guilty of murder or not...truly a miscarriage of justice. On NPR this morning, they had a feature about lesser-known events of the past century. One listener suggested the Sacco and Vanzetti case, saying that an informal poll showed it to be an age-dividing event. All the people who had heard of the case were 40+ years old; no-one younger seemed to know who they were... |
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: katlaughing Date: 30 Dec 99 - 03:29 PM And, here I am, 46 yrs old, sheltered little Western gyrl (not!) and I'd not heard of them until this thread. Joan Baez had a good one that I found on Yahoo, yesterday, too. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: TWO GOOD ARMS (Charlie King) From: Marymac90 Date: 30 Dec 99 - 03:53 PM "Two Good Arms" is by Charlie King, of CT, a singer, very good songwriter, member of the (disbanded) group Bright Morning Star, and one of the founders of the People's Music Network, (which will have it's winter gathering Jan. 28-30 in Queens, NYC). "Two Good Arms" is on his albums "Somebody's Story" (Rainbow/Snake) and "TWO GOOD ARMS Songs of the Hopes and Struggles of Working People" (on Vaguely Reminiscent sounds VRS7011). It's also on "Lifeline" by Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert, and "Freedom Peacefully" by Roy Bailey. Charlie wrote "TWO GOOD ARMS" in 1977, for the 50th anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. An exerpt from the song, which is on page 219 of Rise Up Singing, follows. Who will remember the hand upon the switch, that Took the lives of two good men in the service of the rich? Who will remember the one who gave the nod, or the Chaplain standing near at hand, to invoke the name of God? CHORUS: All who know these two good arms Know I never had to rob or kill I can live by my own two hands, and live well And all my life I have struggled To rid the earth of all such crimes We will remember this good shoemaker We will remember this poor fish peddler We will remember all the strong arms and hands That never once found justice in the hands that rule this land Last chorus: And all who knew these two good men Knew they never had to rob or kill Each had lived by his own two hands, and lived well And all their lives they had struggled To rid the earth of all such crimes And all our lives we must struggle To rid the earth of all such crimes Mary McCaffrey |
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Subject: Two Good Arms From: GUEST,AKRick Date: 13 Dec 00 - 05:03 PM I first heard this tune a year or so ago. I believe it concerns the last statement of Sacco and Vanzetti. I also heard a version by Holly Near a few months ago. Any help would be greatly appreciat |
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Subject: Lyr Add: TWO GOOD ARMS (Charlie King) From: Amergin Date: 13 Dec 00 - 05:10 PM Well here's the lyrics:
TWO GOOD ARMS
Who will remember, the hands so white and fine
CHORUS
And all who know these two good arms
Who will remember Judge Webster Thayer
CHORUS
Who will remember the hand upon the switch
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Two Good Arms From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Dec 00 - 05:31 PM These chords are from the Rise Up Singing Songbook: C - Dm / G - F C :// CHORUS: / " / " / F - C downarrow Dm - / C downarrow Dm - / G - C - I'm not much of a guitarist, and don't completely understand the Rise Up singing chord notation when they get into fancy stuff like arrows pointing down.... -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Two Good Arms From: Mark Cohen Date: 13 Dec 00 - 10:03 PM It means a bass run, Joe. RUS's notation is sometimes maddening, and the chords are sometimes wrong, and the division into thematic categories is sometimes strange, but all in all I think they did a fairly good job. It's a big improvement over the first version, Winds of the People. I love this song. I heard Charlie King do it at a house concert in Seattle in 1990 or thereabouts, and I'm pretty sure the chorus is a fairly accurate excerpt from the statement one of the two men made at their trial. (Charlie is the author, unless my ginkgo deficiency is worse than I thought...) Aloha, Mark |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Two Good Arms From: Mark Cohen Date: 13 Dec 00 - 10:09 PM PS. I'm surprised the song isn't in the DT. There is a third verse...and Judge Thayer's hand was on the gavel, not the gallows. Who will remember, this good shoemaker Who will remember this poor fish peddler Who will remember all those strong arms and hands That never once found justice in the hands that rule this land (final chorus) And all who knew these two good men Knew they never had to rob or kill Each had lived by his own two hands And they lived well And all their lives they had struggled To rid the earth of all such crimes And all our lives we must struggle To rid the earth of all such crimes That's from memory so I apologize for any glitches. M |
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Subject: Lyr Add: TWO GOOD ARMS From: open mike Date: 23 Aug 02 - 08:55 PM TWO GOOD ARMS by Charlie King-from notes in Sing out! 's Rise Up singing book: "At the height of the "Red Scare" in 1920, two Italian immigrant union activists in Boston were framed on murder charges, Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomeo Vanzettti were electrocuted in 1927 despite world=wide appeals on their behalf. Who will remember the hands so white and fine That touched the finest linen, that poured the finest wine, Who will remember the genteel words they spoke To name the lives or two good men a nuisance or a joke. CHORUS: All who know these two good arms Know I never had to rob or kill I can live by my own two hands and live well And all my life I have struggled to rid the earth of all such crimes
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Subject: RE: two good arms? From: GUEST,gryall@cwnet.com Date: 13 Oct 02 - 12:53 AM I almost remember the tune to "Two Good Arms" - can you tell me where to find it? Gail Ryall |
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Subject: ADD: Two Good Arms (Charlie King) From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Oct 02 - 02:17 AM Well, I wasn't satisfied with any of the transcriptions we've had, so I'll try my own. This is from the Carry It On songbook, by Pete Seeger & Bob Reiser. -Joe Offer- TWO GOOD ARMS (Charlie King) Who will remember, the hands so white and fine That touched the finest linen, that poured the finest wine? Who will remember, the genteel words they spoke To name the lives of two good men, a nuisance or a joke? CHORUS All who know these two good arms Know I'd never had to rob or kill I can live by my own two hands and live well And all my life I have struggled To rid the earth of all such crime. Who will remember Judge Webster Thayer, One hand on the gavel, the other resting on his chair? Who will remember the hateful words he said, Speaking to the living in the language of the dead? CHORUS Who will remember the hand upon the switch That took the lives of two good men in the service of the rich? Who will remember the one that gave the nod Or the chaplain standing near at hand to invoke the name of God? CHORUS We will remember this good shoemaker, We will remember this poor fish peddler, We will remember all the strong arms and hands That never once found justice in the hands that rule this land. FINAL CHORUS And all who knew these two good men Knew they never had to rob or kill. Each had lived by his own two hands, And they lived well. And all their lives they had struggled To rid the earth of all such crime. And all our lives we must struggle To rid the earth of all such crime. © 1978, Pied Asp Music (BMI) The MIDI is here (click). I know this song by a recording by Holly Near - her tune is just a bit different. I find both versions of the tune difficult to sing. I sing with Gail, so I'll make sure she gets a copy. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Two Good Arms (Charlie King) From: GUEST Date: 14 Dec 09 - 05:15 AM Who will remember Judge Webster Thayer One hand on the gavel, the other resting on the chair Who will remember the hateful words he said Speaking to the living in the language of the dead chorus And all who know these two good hands Know they never had to rob or kill I can live by these two good hands and live well And all my life I have struggled To rid the world of all such crimes. Who will remember the hand upon the switch, that Took the lives of two good men in the service of the rich Who will remember the one who gave the nod, or the Chaplain standing near at hand to invoke the name of God chorus We will remember this good shoemaker We will remember this poor fish peddler We will remember all the strong arms and hands That never once found justice in the hands that rule this land last chorus- And all who knew these two good men Knew thay never had to rob or kill Each had lived by his own two hands and they had lived well And all their lives they had struggled To rid the earth of all such crimes and all our lives we must struggle to rid the earth of all such crimes From http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:FM0732XaYBIJ:twogoodhands.wordpress.com/why-two-good-hands/+Who+will+remember+the+hand+upon |
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