Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs

Subject: American Freedom Songs
From:
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 04:46 PM

I am looking for a site for Freedom Song lyrics. I teach Ethnic Studies and have lots of Smithsonian CD's from the Civil Rights Movement but I am looking for lyrics so I can get my students singing. Stan Cooper [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 04:52 PM

Do you mean Revolutionary War type stuff, or anti-slavery stuff (or some third type of stuff I'm not even thinking of)?

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From:
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 05:25 PM

Alex The American Civil Rights Movement.

Stan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 05:27 PM

You mean the one in the late 50's and the 60's? Martin Luther King and the bus boycott and all that?

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From:
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 05:51 PM

Yep, songs like Ain' Gonna let Nobody Turn Me 'Round.

Dog, Dog

In the Mississippi River (SNCC Freedom Woke up this mornin with my mind stayed on Freedom

Coop

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 07:26 PM

Well, the biggie was "We Shall Overcome". Surely you don't need lyrics to that posted? Also, look at "Oh, Freedom".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Haruo
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 07:53 PM

The Flight of the Bumblebee?

(Kidding; just remembering back to when I was a kid boycotting the schools and going to Freedom School at First AME for a couple days to make Open Housing happen. I know we sang a lot, but the only music from that protest that sticks in my mind is whatsisname Siegel, the old First Violin for the Seattle Symphony, coming in and showing us how to play the Flight of the Bumblebee.)

I know we sang stuff like "(Gonna lay down my sword and shield) Down by the Riverside", and "We shall not, we shall not be moved", and "Paul and Silas bound in jail". Speaking of the last, I'm not sure if we sang "If you miss me at the back of the bus" or if I'm just thinking of it because it was on Pete Seeger's Carnegie Hall album along with Paul and Silas. And my pastor says, "Kumbayah" (he's kibitzing). But he's right, we sang that. And lots of Peter Paul & Mary type stuff (This land is your land, if I had a hammer, etc., a lot of it was other people's stuff, from Woody to Dylan, but PP&M were the form I knew it in.)

Liland

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: GUEST,mousethief (at the library)
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 08:11 PM

Guest, have you thought of getting the new CD anthology that was just put out by Folkways, "A World of Sound"? It has everything recorded in their studios from something like 1959 through the late 80s, but concentrating on the 60's, with people like Ochs and Dylan and Seeger and what-have-you. I haven't bought it yet (funds are tight), but it looks like a real winner by all accounts. You can find it on the Smithsonian/Folkways web site. click here

Good luck!

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: Civil rights Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 08:13 PM

Hi, Stan - I think most of the usual civil rights songs are indexed in this thread: Gospel Origins - Civil Rights and Labor Songs (click).
The absolute best songbook of Civil Rights songs is Sing for Freedom: the Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs edited by Guy and Candie Carawan and published by Sing Out! in 1992. You can get the book and/or a companion CD at http://www.singout.org/. There's a two-CD collection of the best of the civil rights songs called Voices of Civil Rights, on the Smithsonian Folkways label.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 08:16 PM

Guest- You can reap a lot of selections by searching DigiTrad with keywords like @political, @peace and the like.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 08:23 PM

Hi, Dick - the database is already overburdened with 530-some categories, but I've wondered how to categorize civil rights songs and have thought it might be nice to havea @civilrights category.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From:
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 11:25 PM

Thanks for the tips! i've got all the songs I listed plus many others on Folkways Cd. I was just hoping to find an easy source of the libretos. Thanks so much for the leads.

By the way, on a completely different topic of music... I've got the complete Jimmy Driftwood collection.I also have a rather extensive Merle Travis collection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Hotspur
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 11:34 PM

There's also a fairly recent video overview of the Civil Rights movement, which features a lot of music. I believe it's called "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize," which is a spiritual and can be interpreted either way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 06:13 AM

For those who may be interested, I have posted the words to ten Civil Rights freedom songs on my website:

http://www.cocojams.com/freedom_songs.htm

Those songs are:

Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round

Certainly, Lord

Hold On {Paul & Silas Bound In Jail}

If You Miss Me At The Back Of The Bus

Lift Every Voice And Sing

No More Auction Block {Many Thousands Gone}

Oh Freedom

We Shall Not Be Moved

We Shall Overcome

Woke Up This Mornin {with my mind stayed on freedom}

--

These are the versions of those songs that I remember singing in Atlantic City, New Jersey 1962-1965.

www.cocojams.com is a place where people of all races & ethnicities can share their memories about the recent & the not so recent past.

This is a work in progress :O)
and your participation will add to that progress. As you will notice from reading the pages at that site, I frequently refer people to Mudcat and the Mudcat threads are listed as a recommended link.

Please let me know what you think.

[BTW, while I can do hyperlinks there, I haven't got the hang of it here yet. I would appreciate if someone would post a hyperlink for my site on this thread.]

Thanks!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 07:09 PM

Would someone who can do hyperlinks please hyperlink

http://www.cocojams.com/freedom_songs.htm

www.cocojams.com

Thank you, very much. It would sure help Azizi out a whole lot.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Pauline L
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 09:32 PM

Here it is.

http://www.cocojams.com/freedom_songs.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Pauline L
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 09:56 PM

As I write this, I am looking at a small book, with no publication date, which I bought for $1.95 in 1964 or 1965. It is called, "We Shall Overcome: Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement," and it was complied by Guy and Candie Caravan for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It has the melody, chords, and lyrics for a lot of freedom songs, as well as brief historical notes and photographs for many of the songs. It is great as music and as history...lest we forget.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 10:31 PM

Thanks Brucie and Pauline L.

I appreciate your help!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 10:40 PM

Thank you, Pauline L.

You be careful in Washington, y'hear?

Welcome, Azizi.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 11:01 PM

Pauline:

Re: the book that you mentioned "We Shall Overcome: Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement," when time allows, please consider posting the song titles from that book within this thread.

It would be helpful to know which songs SNCC included in their book.

And Happy MLK Jr. Day to all!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: American Freedom Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 06:02 PM

I'm reposting this message about several freedom songs that
I recently received from a visitor to my website, Cocojams:

Addition to the song "Hold On" or "eye on the prize"
Know the one thing we did wrong
stayed in the wilderness far too long
Know the first thing we did right
was the day we started to fight
Keep your eye on the prize hold on, hold on

Remarks regarding "we shall overcome" The posture of African Americans while singing this song has always bothered me. Rather than seeing it as a sign of unity, it appeared to me a sign of submission as when your arms are crossed while holding hands you are in no position to fight if need be. Perhaps if "Lift Every Voice and Sing" had become the song of the civil rights movement, more people would know the words today?? As a performer who does one woman dramatizations of Strong Black Women in American History, Fannie Lou Hamer included, I was looking for additional words to "Eye on the Prize" also called "Hold On."
-Momma Kemba ; 2/26/2008

-snip-

I posted a link to this thread along with my comment thanking Mama Kemba for sharing that verse and sharing her interesting comments.
I was going to post that verse on the Mudcat thread:
thread.cfm?ThreadID=4136
Req/Add: eyes on the prize / hand on the plow

However, or some reason,that thread is closed.