Lyr Add:The Ballad of Stalin (songs about Stalin)

Subject: Lyr Req: Joe Stalin
From:
Date: 27 Sep 01 - 01:47 PM

Can anyone tell me the words of a ballad to Stalin which commenced

"Joe Stalin was a mighty man, a mighty man was he.
He led the Soviet people on the road to victory.
All through the revolution, he fought at Lenin's side,
And they formed a combination until the day that Lenin died."

It was written in the early 1950's or late 1940's, possibly in England and was sung by the party faithful.

Subject: RE: Joe Stalin
From: Gareth
Date: 27 Sep 01 - 02:06 PM

Give me time, and with fammily memories I think we can reconstruvt it.

Ah happy days of singing it outside the US Embassy in London in the late 60's and 70's - purely to annoy the Trotskites of course.

Gareth.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Gareth
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 07:13 PM

Mentions of the Ballad of Harry Pollit in another thread bring this to mind.

So far we have reconstructed 2 to 2 1/2 verses.

Enquiries of friends and "ahem" fellow travellers have drawn a blank - I can only auppose that Kruschov's speach to the 1956 party Congress, and the end of the Cold War have resulted in this disappearing down Orwells "Memory Hole".

But please Comrades and ex-Comrades can anybody remember more ?

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Jul 02 - 08:06 AM

Ewan MacColl did write this beauty,

and in his songbook it is only printed in the Appendix for Peggy Seeger is probably correct i nstating that he was not proud of this song in later times.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr req: Joe Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Jul 02 - 03:49 PM

Well, even though MacColl may have been embarrassed by it, I'd sure like to see the lyrics. Anybody got 'em? I did a Google search, but had no luck.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Wolfgang
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 04:39 AM

I shall post them (just have to bring the book with me).

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: mack/misophist
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:16 AM

Do you think you could manage the tune also? It's been long enough now that this could be hillarious if done right.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF STALIN (MacColl)^^
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 11:32 AM

It is a pity that the date when this song was written is not given, but the mention of the Volga-Don Canal makes 1952 the earliest probable date and assuming that Krushev's denouncing of Stalin in 1956 has reached MacColl's ears this year (1956) should be the last possible date (I hope).

Peggy Seeger calls the song "a sample of his early work, highly dogmatic and low on finesse", but she still insists that "there is no doubt that Joseph Stalin was a brilliant wartime leader and that many of his reforms (notably his collectivisation programme) were correct and productive."

How a person could be so partially blind is a mystery to me. He must have believed that just everything he could read in the bourgeois press was wrong. Peggy Seeger's use of the word 'productive' also puzzles me. If she still thinks collectivisation was correct that's fine, but 'productive'. I thought it was now fairly well known that the productivity dropped by the collectivisation.

So, here comes a great parody (and that's how it should be sung now) except that it was meant serious when written. (I'll try to find a way for the tune)

Wolfgang

THE BALLAD OF STALIN
(Ewan MacColl)

Joe Stalin was a mighty man, a mighty man was he,
He led the Soviet people on the road to victory.
All through the revolution he fought at Lenin's side,
And they made a combination till the day that Lenin died.

He said, "Come all you people, we will work with brain and hand."
And then one day the Nazis came into the Soviet land,
They plundered to the Volga, to Stalingrad, and then
Joe Stalin said, Come on, me boys!" and he kicked them out again.

Joe Stalin was a southerner, in Georgia he was born
Where the oranges grow thick and fast and fields of waving corn;
And Joe he was a farmer, his fingers they were green
And he has planted the biggest crop the world has ever seen.

One day he looked upon his map and frowned and shook his head,
"There's too much brown and not enough green," these are the words he said;
"We'll have to change the weather, boys," he said and then he smiled,
"So let's begin by planting trees along three thousand miles."

Joe Stalin rolled his sleeves up and he said, "Come on, let's start!
The Volga river and the Don they are too far apart.
I think we'd better join them, so come and help me, pal,
And we'll build a mighty waterway, the Volga-Don Canal."

One day he went into the North and there saw rivers three
All emptying their waters into the Polar Sea;
"Now that's not right," Joe Stalin said, "these rivers they are ours,
We'll turn 'em 'round and make 'em work to give electric power."

There was a range of mountains that was standing in the way
So Stalin put his hand out and he smoothed them all away;
For Joe he was determined to make the land all green
And that's the biggest project that the world has ever seen.

Joe Stalin was a mighty man and he made a mighty plan;
He harnessed nature to the plough to work for the good of man;
He's hammered out the future, the forgeman he has been
And he's made the workers' state the best the world has ever seen.
^^

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 11:53 AM

I've scanned the tune (the result looks good to me, but the scanner is new so one never knows) and sent it to Joe Offer. PM me your e-mail who else wants it and I'll send it to you too.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: LITTLE JOE THE RUSTLER (Joe Glazer)^^
From: Walter Corey
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:05 PM

Here's a different take on Stalin:

LITTLE JOE THE RUSTLER
(by Joe Glazer)
tune: Little Joe the Wrangler

Oh Little Joe, the Rustler, will rustle nevermore
His schemin' in the Kremlin is all through
'Twas back in 1907 that he robbed the Tiflis bank
& he landed in the prison at Baku -

(Cho #1)Well he rustled off through Europe & he rustled through the world
From Germany out to the China Sea
Joe Stalin purged & plundered as his black mustache he twirled
& he did it in the name of liberty

He rode with Nicolai Lenin who was leader of the band
But Stalin had ambitions of his own
He learned to rope & shoot & ride until he led them all
& he succeeded Lenin to the throne - cho.#1

Now Little Joe he purged Bukar & Trotsky & the rest
Zenobiev & many others too
He said they all were traitors & he shot them down like dogs
Till he alone remained of all the crew - cho #2

(cho #2)Well he wove an Iron Curtain & encircled half the world
He gobbled up his neighbors one by one
He called it liberation but his name was cursed by all
As the people saw their countries overrun

"Twas in the spring of '53 that Joseph Stalin died
They laid him next to Lenin in a tomb
There were no tears, no broken hearts, no grief throughout the world
When Little Joe' the Rustler, met his doom - cho #1

On Folkways 05802: American History in Ballad & Song, v2 ^^

Subject: Tune Add: THE BALLAD OF STALIN (Ewan MacColl)^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:25 PM

Here's the tune Wolfgang sent me. I take it that it's from the Ewan MacColl Songbook. Thanks, Wolfgang.
-Joe Offer-

---

MIDI file: JOSTALIN.MID

Timebase: 192

Name: Joe Stalin
Text: By Ewan MacColl
Copyright: Copyright © about 1956

---

Click to play

---

ABC format:

X:1
T:Joe Stalin
M:2/4
Q:1/4=150
K:C
A8|F2D2D2E2|F2D2D2F2|E2C2D2D2|D6d2|d2d2d2c2|
A2A2A2B2|c2A2A2G2|A6d2|d2d2d2c2|A2c4A2|G2E2C2E2|
G6A2|F2D2D2E2|F2D2D2F2|E2C2D2D2|D2D6|-D||

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Gareth
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 02:57 PM

Walter, Wolfgang - Thanks, this should anoy a few !

Which reminds me of the ood joke.

One fine day in the Kremlin, Uncle Joe can not find his pipe, so he sends for the head of the NKVD.

"Larentie, I've lost my pipe. Can any of your lads find it ?"

The head of the NKVD departs.

An hour later Joe finds his pipe where he had left it, and sends for the NKVD again.

"Ok call the lads off - I've found my pipe"

"Just one problem Comrade Stalin - What do we do with the 14 people who've confessed to stealing it ?"

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: GUEST,Patrick Gethin
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 12:17 AM

Thanks Gareth, Wolfgang, Joe and others. The late Johnnie Hasted sang this ballad on one of his visits to St Pancras Y.C.L.in 1952. Of course we all received it rapturously. On March 3 (?) 1953 in the evening, after panegyrics and tears, we went on the streets to sell the next day's Daily Worker with its front page scoop(?) about Stalin's death. Newsreels showed that he was mourned by millions around the world. We didn't know any better then. Some of you probably know the song about Stalin's "peaceful" nature as he "smokes a pipe and wears a taxi-driver's cap". I do have the words to that one. I needed the ballad for my visit to his birthplace of Gori. They talk about him a lot there.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 03:16 AM

Hi, Patrick - if you have time, please post the lyrics to your other Joe Stalin song here.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 06:33 AM

While we're on Stalin songs, I've just had a look and can't seem to find "The Commissar of Potters Bar"; but I'm not very clever at searching. If Joe Offer or some similar competent person could confirm it's not there, perhaps I'd better add it.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Cllr
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 02:10 PM

I just got back from Georgia a couple of weeks back after monitoring the local elections in Batumi, Its a shame I didn't have the song then. Cllr

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Joe Stalin
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 02:20 PM

No sign of the "Potter's Bar" song, Greg. Please post it for us.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE COMMISSAR OF POTTERS BAR
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 06:00 PM

THE COMMISSAR OF POTTERS BAR
Tune :Red Flag(Tannenbaum)

The commissar of Potters Bar
Has got a ninety horse-power car
He rides it up and down the lanes
Inspecting munic-eye-pal drains
He isn't one of Uncle Joe's
But that's the way the money goes
The working class can kiss my arse
I've got a foreman's job at last

---

There you are Joe (Offer, not Uncle). Not sure of the correct format for adding lyrics. Hope this is OK

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TAXI DRIVER'S CAP
From: Jim McLean
Date: 22 Sep 02 - 10:04 AM

THE TAXI DRIVER'S CAP
Tune: The Lincolnshire Poacher or MacNamara's Band

O Hitler's a non-smoker and Churchill smokes cigars,
And they're both as keen as mustard on imperialistic wars.
But your Uncle Joe's a worker and a very decent chap,
Because he smokes a pipe and wears a taxi driver's cap.

When Rommel got to Alamein and shook the British line,
The whole of Cairo beat it to the land of Palastine.
But Moscow never raised a yell and never had a flap,
Because Joe smokes a pipe and wears a taxi driver's cap.

That Hitler's armies can't be beat is just a load of cock,
For Marshal Timoshenko's boys are racing through Van Brock,
The Fuehrer makes the bloomers and his marshals take the rap,
Meanwhile Joe smokes a pipe and wears a taxi driver's cap.

The Fascist drive on Stalingrad is going mighty slow,
They've got a room in Number Nine of Slobberskaya Row.
When Fascist armies start to run old Goebbels fills the gap,
Meanwhile Joe smokes his pipe and wears a taxi driver's cap.

At home those beggars publicise the deeds of "Our Ally",
Whose dearest wish was once to biff the Bolshie in the eye.
Your Uncle Joe is wise to this; He isn't such a sap,
Although he smokes a pipe and wears a taxi driver's cap.

Jim McLean

---

An addendum from Jim:

Hi Joe, no I didn't write it, I got it from the first edition of The Rebels Ceilidh Songbook. The tune is given as 'The Lincolnshire Poacher or MacNamara's Band'. It's difficult to say who wrote it as most of the other songs in the book have authors' credits. Willie Kellock, who put the book together and wrote the introductory notes, says that some authors wished to remain anonymous. Regards, Jim Mclean

-Joe Offer-

---

Threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.

Subject: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 03:58 PM

does anybody actually have this song?
of course it is imposibble to find on the internet (and I actually doubt anyone ever uploaded this anywhere)
buying the old TRC54: The Ballad of Stalin. Ewan MacColl and Al Jeffery
is not an option either as it seems to be offered nowhere (on ebay 3 years ago)

so is it possible that someone who has the song uploads it somewhere or sends it to [e-mail]?
many thanks in advance

(really, no stalin discussion needed)

Subject: RE: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: GUEST,Bob L
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 04:03 PM

Seeing the thread title, I wondered if someone had written a ballad casting aspersions on Ewan's left-wing tendencies...

Subject: Lyr Add: Ballad of Stalin (MacColl)(fragment)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 04:35 PM

Joe Stalin was a mighty man, a mighty man was he.
He led the Soviet people on the road to victory.
All through the revolution he fought at Lenin's side,
And they made a combination till the day that Lenin died.

Joe Stalin was a southerner, in Georgia he was born
Where the oranges grow thick and fast, and fields of waving corn.
And Joe he was a farmer, his fingers they were green
And he has planted the biggest crop the world has ever seen.

One day he looked upon the map and frowned and shook his head:
'There's too much brown and not enough green', these are the words he said,
'We'll have to change the weather, boys' he said and then he smiled,
'So let's begin by planting trees along three thousand miles.'

Joe Stalin was a mighty man and he made a mighty plan;
He harnessed nature to the plough to work for the good of man.
He's hammered out the future, the forgeman he has been,
And he's made the worker's state the best the world has ever seen.

from

http://www.metafilter.com/66601/Pete-Seeger-condemns-Stalin

Subject: RE: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 04:38 PM

"of course it is imposibble to find on the internet"

That is FROM the internet, FYI.

Subject: RE: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: civilservant
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 04:44 PM

The thread title should have a full stop after Stalin. Then a capital letter for Maccoll.

It certainly wasn't his finest hour when he wrote that one.

Subject: RE: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 04:53 PM

The following may help you in future. A Google of "ballad of stalin" ives too many sites to search in a reasonable lifetime. However, one of the sites

Ewan MacColl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia... in Vietnam) and The Ballad of Stalin ("Joe Stalin was a mighty man and a mighty man was he/ He led the Soviet people on the road to victory"), ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewan_MacColl - Cached - Similar

shows that one of the lines in the song is

"Joe Stalin was a mighty man and a mighty man was he"

I then Googled that (with the quotation marks as is) and was taken to a Google page that has only four sites on it. I opened all four and found the lyrics on the site to which I hotlinked.

I expect now that Google will show five sites to have that line. The fifth site will be Mudcat.

Some songs take a bit more digging. Some come quite easily. I will notify the OP.

Subject: RE: ballad of stalin maccoll
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 05:32 PM

guest999 if I'm just too clumsy to find any audio file link on that page then please guide me and thanks for "FYI"

if there is no such link on that page the question might be allowed whether you actually did read my question to the end

maybe my english really is too bad to ask complex questions so;
maccoll
singing
ballad of stalin
mp3
anyone?
Dankeschön!

(I understand that this is probably not the right place to ask for download-things, but it is the place most likely where someone actually has this song)





civilservant, I hereby sincerely apologize for having insulted your most exquisite sense of correct writing. Keep on fighting deterioration of language!
(nice name btw)

Subject: RE: Ballad of Stalin (MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 05:48 PM

Bob L   quite a wonder that there is no such song yet :)

honestly, reading through some of the threads on mudcat quite a few people would appreciate such a song :(

Subject: RE: Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 06:28 PM

It is included, apologetically, as Appendix IV in Peggy Seeger's _Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook_.

Subject: RE: Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 06:43 PM

but its better[Arguably] than have you seen the nirex man by Graeme Miles.

Subject: RE: Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 06:49 PM

That must be one of the most unintentionally hilarious songs in history. ;-) I think so, anyway. I wonder if he wrote anything similarly praiseworthy about Mao?

Subject: Lyr Add: JOE THE GEORGIAN (Al Stewart)
From: mousethief
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 07:14 PM

Here's a somewhat related (but not pro-Stalin) effort from Al Stewart, a propos of nothing.

JOE THE GEORGIAN
(Al Stewart)

Now I've got my payment
For the service that I gave
They've given me my ticket
To this place beyond the grave
I suppose it's kind of funny
I suppose it's kind of sad
Thinking back on all the times we had

But it's kind of hot and smoky
In this ante-room to Hell
And I won't make up a story
'Cause you know the truth so well
It's much too late to worry
That we never had a chance
And when Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance, dance, dance
When Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance

We all set off together
On this sorry ship of state
When the captain took the fever
We were hijacked by the mate
And he steered us through the shadows
Upon an angry tide
And cast us one by one over the side

But it's kind of hot and smoky
In this ante-room to Hell
And I won't make up a story
'Cause you know the truth so well
It's much too late to worry
That we never had a chance
And when Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance, dance, dance
When Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance

There's Kamenev, Zinoviev,
Bukharin and the rest
We're sharpening our pitchforks
And we're heating up the ends
We've got a few surprises
For the mate when he appears
I hope he likes the next few million years

(repeat chorus again)

Subject: RE: Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 07:20 PM

aww people
does anyone have the record of the song?


who cares wether one finds it hilarious, preposterous , fallacious, impudent, terrific, moving, bodacious or absolutely irrelevant - there already is a long thread with all this

Subject: RE: rea/ADD: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Lighter
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 07:55 PM

"The Taxi-Driver's Cap" appears in Hamish Henderson's "Ballads of World War II" (1947). He may have written or elaborated it.

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 07:56 PM

Sorry, Atze, I don't see any evidence that MacColl ever recorded this song. Best I can do is a MIDI:

---

Click to play

---

Here are Peggy Seeger's notes from Appendix IV (page 388) of The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook:

Ewan wrote a number of songs like this in his early years, alongside more subtle texts like "Dirty Old Town" and "Stalinvarosh." There is no doubt that Joseph Stalin was a brilliant wartime leader and that many of his reforms (notably his collectivisation programme) were correct and productive. Idolisation of Stalin by the left wing the world over continued until the 20th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (1956) when he was posthumously denounced by Khruschev for his "personality cult" and his human rights crimes. Disillusioned and subsequently turning to China for political role models, Ewan stopped singing this song or even referring to it. He would not have included it in the main body of such a book as this unless it were for reasons similar to mine: (1) as a sample of the old politics, which viewed the earth as mere clay out of which man fashion'S a world for man and (2) as a sample of his early work, highly dogmatic and low on finesse. It exhibits a lack of economy, an excess of cliches and filler lines, many awkward terms and an errant chronological flow. It has many of the characteristics of political songs of its time and is virtually a political credo set into verse and put to a tune.
It is just that.
Peggy Seeger

Subject: RE: rea/ADD: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 09:27 AM

to joe offer
now I might sound like a smartass but;
http://www.popsike.com/EWAN-MacCOLL-Ballad-Of-Stalin-TOPIC-78rpm-McColl/4755901508.html
and that is actually what i am looking for, so again
does anyone here has this record?

Subject: RE: REALITY: Your Hero Uncle Joe.
From: GUEST,Uncle Jaque
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 09:59 AM

Hate to have to burst your little Utopian bubble here Komrades, but here's a little History that Komrade Educator might have neglected to tell you about in your neighborhood government indoctrination center (AKA "Public School"):

the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide of 1932

I can't find where very many people are singing about it, especially any survivors who might still be alive - but if I can find a ballad to commemorate this one example of "Uncle Joe's" many stellar humanitarian accomplishments I'll be sure to post it.

Please don't even get me started on one of Anita DUNN's 2 favorite Philosophers and apparent political mentor of at least 2 of our current Dear Leader's Politbureau, "Chairman Mao".

Subject: RE: rea/ADD: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 10:04 AM

Macoll did record the song on a single; I think it was on the Topic label, though it might have been a Workers Music Association production.
It should be remembered that it was written at a time when Russia was an ally, and the whole of the left, and a good percentage of those countries opposing fascism thought the sun shone out of Stalin's arse.
Many of the early revival singers, Lloyd, Hastead, Pete Seeger - et al were fervent Stalin (Uncle Joe, as he was known then) supporters.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 10:23 AM

hey uncle jaque; did you actually read the posts in this thread or other threads related to anything left-wing since 1917?

i get the impression there really is no need for convincing people here that stalin was a bad man, communism a good idea gone wrong, and the theory of totalitarianism the last truth

so dont you have to go enlighten some 15-year old stalinists discussing youtube-videos on communism?

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 10:26 AM

sorry to bore you all so much, but again;
anyone there who owns this record?

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 04:50 PM

to joe offer
since you seem to own this songbook could you post rhe lyrics of this "Stalinvarosh"
"more subtle" sounds quite interesting thanks

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 08:13 PM

May as well save the other & busier Joe the trouble:

Saw you first on a winter's morning
When the fields were deep in snow --
Saw you smile and smelled the springtime in you,
Though your name I did not know.

    O, Stalinvarosh!
    O, Stalinvarosh!
    O, Stalinvarosh!

By the side of the frozen Danube,
Where you planted steel and stone --
Saw a town from the turned-up soil come rising,
Stalinvarosh, your new home.

Rosy red her cheeks, like apples;
Like ripe corn, her yellow hair --
She was building Stalinvarosh steel-town,
Lost my heart to her standing there.

Though the sky was cold and stormy,
Still the dove was on the wing --
Saw it rise from Number Three blast furnace,
Heard it sing through the hammer's ring.

Saw you dance when the day's work ended,
Saw you smile and heard you sing --
Dreamed a dream of a Stalinvarosh summer,
Of the harvest your work will bring.

Go on building, my pretty little darling,
And your song will never end --
And the dove will next in Stalinvarosh,
All her days with you she'll spend.

(TTTO "Down the Lane", it says.)

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,atze
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 09:13 AM

thanks joe f!

so i guess no one actually has the record, then? :(

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 07:26 PM

I'd though I might, but none of the three MacColl's I have include the song. Sorry, atze.

Subject: RE: Req/Add: The Ballad of Stalin (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,dick.hamlet
Date: 13 May 11 - 01:50 PM

LYR ADD: Little Joe the Rustler
(This isn't quite the right thread, but it's here that the
Joe Glazer's lyrics were posted.) I added a verse to bring
the story to its ending:

When in nineteen-fifty-six the Party Congress met
Little Joe lay there by Lenin's side
But when the Congress ended and Khrushchev had his way
Little Joe lay in the dirt outside

(Final chorus)
He had rustled all through Europe, rustled through the world
From Germany out to the China Sea
Joe Stalin purged and plundered, 'til he himself was purged
And hustled out of Russian history

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Max Johnson
Date: 13 May 11 - 03:02 PM

The Dead Sea Surfers used to sing Stalin Wasn't Stallin', (orig. Golden Gate Quartet).
If all goes to plan, it will be available on Lost Folk Tapes shortly.

www.lostfolktapes.com

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 11:33 AM

(Brought up by a Russian YouTube link which is NOT about Stalin).

More from other places? I've seen two nominations for "Stalin's favourite song" - one is the lugubrious Georgian my-girlfriend-died ballad "Suliko"; the other is a much more interesting Azerbaijani song "Pencereden tas gelir" (the stone came through the window) which Stalin apparently used as a code when in jail in Baku in 1908, for his comrades outside to signal when they were about to biff a pebble with a message wrapped round it through the window of his cell. (There is a very long description of the background on an Azeri website which I could translate if anybody showed sufficient enthusiasm).

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Apr 17 - 11:08 AM

In the 70s I picked up a children's songbook of Lenin in the then U.S.S.R. It was called "Lenin Vsyegda S'Toboi" (Lenin is always with you). I imagine there must have been MANY books such as this only in regard to Stalin over the years of his dominance. The only mention of his name during my stay was on a train-ride where one of my American companions told a story about Stalin indicating that 10 million lives were lost during Collectivization.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: GUEST,Dick Miles
Date: 27 Apr 17 - 01:16 PM

Stalin was of great importance in the winning of world war 2, the same cannot be said of Mao.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 27 Apr 17 - 08:35 PM

Richard Stites, Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900 (Cambridge University Press, 1992: ISBN 0-521-36986-X), p. 74, says that singer Leonid Utyosov was a personal favorite of Stalin. Zulya and the Children of the Underground did one of his songs as part of a themed presentation on 100 years of Russian song at the National Folk Festival in Canberra over Easter weekend. Utyosov was of Jewish origin, his birth name was Lazar (Leyzer) Iosifovich Vaysbeyn (Weissbein). I'd be surprised if Stalin didn't know this.

I think this is Utyosov in action, but everything's in Cyrillic, which I don't read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh9_TPyRPoc

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 17 - 01:21 PM

This does call to mind the verses penned and published by Pete Seeger in great old age.
About which I have a question:
Die Seeger set them to music, or just recited them?

"he ruled with an iron hand"

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 17 - 09:05 AM

Stalin Wasn't Stallin' by The Golden Gate Quartet.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 May 17 - 05:53 PM

Guest Gerry: Evidently Stalin had his pet Jews. One of my favorite records, for most of my life, has been the Soviet Army Chorus and Band. The first song on it is "Song of Youth" by Isaak Dunayevsky, who (I learn from the jacket & from Wikipedia) was one of the first composers in the USSR to use jazz. Sure enough, there is a jazz bridge in "Song of Youth", and it is a lot of fun. Despite that, and being a Jew, he managed to prosper in the Soviet musical world thruout the whole Stalin era. (Stalin hated jazz.) He must have been talented in more than music.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 17 - 06:12 AM

Joe F, Soviet Army Chorus and Band, Song of Youth, is on Youtube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvSRwHpcyw0

The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded this song under the name Maladyozhenaya on their 1962 album Singin' Our Mind.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 17 May 17 - 09:45 PM

Sorry, GUEST immediately above (17 May 17 - 06:12 AM) was me.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: robomatic
Date: 18 May 17 - 11:27 AM

The Stalin Epigram
Osip Mandelstam, 1891 - 1938

Our lives no longer feel ground under them.
At ten paces you can't hear our words.

But whenever there's a snatch of talk
it turns to the Kremlin mountaineer,

the ten thick worms his fingers,
his words like measures of weight,

the huge laughing cockroaches on his top lip,
the glitter of his boot-rims.

Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses
he toys with the tributes of half-men.

One whistles, another meows, a third snivels.
He pokes out his finger and he alone goes boom.

He forges decrees in a line like horseshoes,
One for the groin, one the forehead, temple, eye.

He rolls the executions on his tongue like berries.
He wishes he could hug them like big friends from home.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Dani
Date: 18 May 17 - 09:01 PM

Here's my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5s6d9lVRuE

by Robert Wyatt

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Now the devil, he was readin'
In the good book one day
How that lord created Adam
To walk the righteous way

And it made the devil jealous
He turned green up to his horns
And he swore by things unholy
And he made one of his own

So he packed two suitcases
Full of grief and misery
And he caught the midnight special
Going down to Germany

Then he mixed his lies and hatred
With fire and brimstone
Then the devil sat upon it
That's how Adolf was born

Now Adolf got the notion
That he was the master race
And he swore he'd bring new order
And put mankind in its place

So he set his scheme in motion
And was winnin' everywhere
Until he up and got the notion
For to kick that Russian bear

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Yes, he kicked that noble Russian
But it wasn't very long
Before Adolf got suspicious
That he had done somethin' wrong

Cause that bear grabbed the fuhrer
And gave him an awful fight
Seventeen months he scrapped the fuhrer
Tooth and claws, day and night

Then that bear smacked the fuhrer
With a mighty armored paw
And Adolf broke all records
Runnin' backwards to Krakow

Then Goebbels sent a message
To the people everywhere
That if they couldn't hit the fuhrer
God, then hit that Russian bear

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Then this bear called on his buddy
The noble fighting yank
And they sent the fuhrer runnin'
With their ships and planes and tanks

Now the fuhrer's havin' nightmares
Cause the fuhrer knows darn well
That the devil's done wrote welcome
On his residence in hell

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: robomatic
Date: 18 May 17 - 10:06 PM

"Stalin wasn't Stallin" was written in 1943 by Willie Johnson and originally recorded by the a cappella gospel group Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet (of which Johnson was a member) in 1943. Robert Wyatt recorded it in 1980 as a gentle reminder of the selective memory of some of us.

Of course it ignores the fact that Stalin started WWII WITH Hitler as an ally. Vermin in lock step with vermin.

And of course, the week of total inactivity when Stalin froze in reaction to the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. in June 1941. Stalin stalled in a major way and the Soviets lost thousands of square miles of territory.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 May 17 - 01:50 PM

"Of course it ignores the fact that Stalin started WWII WITH Hitler as an ally. Vermin in lock step with vermin."
PLEASE RECHECK YOUR FACTS, STALIN DID NOT START WORLD WAR 2. NEITHER WAS HE AN ALLY HE SIGNED A NON AGRESSION PACT, that is a different thing altogether

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: robomatic
Date: 24 May 17 - 05:32 PM

Dear Sandman:

Methinks the Poles would disagree!

My father remembers how the American Communist Party was against American involvement in European affairs (in sync with the America Firsters). Then along comes June 1941, Germany invaded Russia and the next day the leader of the American Communist Party demanded the U.S. get into the War. Naw, no 'collusion' then, folks, nothing to see, move along!

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: PHJim
Date: 25 May 17 - 02:06 AM

When I was in boy scouts we used to sing a song about Joe Stalin around the campfire. It went to the tune of Viva La Compagnie.

Viva le, viva le, viva le Joe
Viva le, viva le, viva le Joe
Viva le Joe, Viva le Joe,
Viva le Joe Stalin

Yuri Gagarin our cosmonaut
Viva le Joe Stalin
We put him up on our very first shot
Viva le Joe Stalin

Come all you communists let us unite
Viva. . .
We will make you our satellite
Viva. . .

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 May 17 - 03:39 AM

Robo
If you cast your mind back (or read it up) you will find that back then, the world was in total confusion, about both Stalin and Hitler
I used to have a photograph of me as a child sitting at a table at a street party in Liverpool, with a banner draped behind me reading "Good old Uncle Joe" - in those days Stalin was a hero to all, not just the Communist Party -
Russia sacrificed more than any other nation in the fight against Hitler in W.W.2 - 20,000,000 died.
On the other hand, world leaders, British and America included, were more than happy to watch the rise of fascism without intervention - they regarded "New Germany as a bulwark against Bolshevism", the result being a holocast which claimed around 12 million systematically murdered people, Jews, Gypsies, Russians, Poles, Trades Unionists, people regarded as a mental and physical liablity ...... anybody who didn't fit into the "new Germany" we were all happy to support
When my father returned from being a prisoner of war in Spain, where he had gone when he saw what was happening to Jews and others in the "New Germany" our leaders were happy to throw their weight behind, he was rewarded with an MI5 record as a "premature anti-fascist", blacklisted from work and excommunicated from his church - he couldn't get a job and was forced to become a navvy - British support for "New Germany" was still resonating with me and my family right into my early teens.
Stalin's crimes were not fully known until Khrushchev began to outline them in 1956 - many millions of people throughout the world regarded them as a product of political infighting propaganda.
It's all too often forgotten by people who use Stalin as an argument not to change society for the better that the left was as much his victim as anybody else who got in his way   
Songs like 'The Ballad of Stalin' were written in the period when everybody seeking a decent future for the world looked on the man as 'the leader of the world's first workers' state' and regarded many of the excesses taking place as 'breaking eggs to make an omelette for a better society' - a necessary sacrifice.
I was in the Soviet Union in the mid 1960s, where they still talked proudly about the magnificent sacrifice made by the Soviet People and described WW2 as "The Great Patriotic War" - this was in ordinary conversation - not government propaganda
I do wish people would put these songs into context before they use them as a continuation of The Cold War
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 May 17 - 05:58 AM

well posted Jim

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: robomatic
Date: 25 May 17 - 10:20 PM

Song: Comrade Stalin, by Vladimir Vysotsky
(English Translation Below)

Товарищ Сталин - Вы большой ученый,
Языкознаний познавший толк,
А я простой совейский заключенный
И мой товарищ - серый Брянский волк.
А я простой совейский заключенный
И мой товарищ - серый Брянский волк.

За что сижу, по совести, не знаю,
Но прокуроры, видимо, правы.
И так сижу я в Туруханском крае,
Где при царе бывали в ссылке Вы.
И так сижу я в Туруханском крае,
Где при царе бывали в ссылке Вы.

И вот сижу я в Туруханском крае,
Где конвоиры строги и грубы,
Я это все, конечно, понимаю,
Как обостренье классовой борьбы.
Я это все, конечно, понимаю,
Как обостренье классовой борьбы.

То дождь, то снег, то мошкара над нами,
А мы в тайге с утра и до утра,
Вы здесь из искры раздували пламя,
Спасибо Вам, я греюсь у костра.
Вы здесь из искры раздували пламя,
Спасибо Вам, я греюсь у костра.

Я вижу Вас, как Вы в партийной кепке
И в кителе идете на парад,
Мы рубим лес, и Сталинские щепки,
Как раньше, во все стороны летят.
Мы рубим лес, и Сталинские щепки,
Как раньше, во все стороны летят.

Вчера мы хоронили двух марксистов,
Мы их не накрывали кумачом.
Один из них был правым уклонистом,
Второй, как оказалось, ни при чем.
Один из них был правым уклонистом,
Второй, как оказалось, ни при чем.

Живите ж тыщу лет, товарищ Сталин,
И как бы трудно не было бы мне
Я знаю будет много чугуна и стали
На душу населения в стране.
Я знаю будет много чугуна и стали
На душу населения в стране.

English Translation

Comrade Stalin, you are a great scientist,
you know the sense of language science
And I am a simple Soviet prisoner,
And a grey wolf of Briansk is my friend.
And I am a simple Soviet prisoner,
And a grey wolf of Briansk is my friend.

I honestly do not know why I am in the prison
But prosecutors are possibly right,
So I am in the Turukhan region
You have been there in exile in the tsarist times
So I am in the Turukhan region
You have been there in exile in the tsarist times.

So I am in the Turukhan region,
Where the escorts are severe and rude
I understand all this, for sure
As a sharpening of class struggle.
I understand all this, for sure
As a sharpening of class struggle.

Rain or snow, or midges above us
And we are in taiga from one morning to another
You started the flame from the sparkle here
Thank you, I can warm my hands at this camp fire.
You started the flame from the sparkle here
Thank you, I can warm my hands at this camp fire.

I see you, how you go to the parade
wearing your party cap and tunic,
We cut the trees down, and Stalin's splintes
Fly in every direction, as it was before.
We cut the trees down, and Stalin's splintes
Fly in every direction, as it was before.

Yesterday we buried two marxists
We didn't cover them with the red bunting.
One of them was the Right deviationist,
the second one, as it appeared later, had nothing to do with it.
One of them was the Right deviationist,
the second one, as it appeared later, had nothing to do with it.

Comrade Stalin, live one thousand years
And no matter how hard it would be for me,
I know that there will be a lot of cast iron and steel
per head in the country.
I know that there will be a lot of cast iron and steel
per head in the country.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: voyager
Date: 26 May 17 - 12:01 PM

rubbish

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 May 17 - 09:04 PM

Vyssotsky was NOT rubbish. One heck of a singer, whether you agreed with his ideas or not.

Subject: RE: ADD:The Ballad of Stalin (and other Stalin songs)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 May 17 - 03:30 AM

WISH SOMEONE WOULD GIVE ME A WIKI ENTRY LIKE THIS
The translation may not appeal to our Western ears, but I've heard similar or far worse from 'The Last Night of the Proms' crowds, or been forced to sing them at school assemblies
As an ardent cinema-goer from early days, I was expected to stand up and sing similar or worse before I shuffled off into the night - and the crowned, bejeweled lady I was asked to sing about wasn't head of a government trying to build a new world for all
Jim Carroll

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