Lyr Add: Song about the end of America

Subject: ADDSB: Ghosts of Our Nation
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:32 AM

Ghosts of our nation
word, Lorcan Otway all rights reserved
Tune The Shamrock Shore.

Farewell to the land, of Jefferson and Franklin
Farewell to the dreams of the good Thomas Paine
We've have sacrificed our freedom, on the alter of security
and I fear we may not see either soon again,
For this land was more than a flag or a slogan
this land was more than its rocks or its clay
This land was a gift given us by great thinkers
a dream which lesser men have now cast away


The rule of law is hobbled and no rights are now held sacred
except the right to steal and plunder in the name of corporate greed
While bible thumping patriots, in the guise of elder statesmen
rob for the wealth few from the people in most need
Now our prisons are full of the men of no property
and back alleys are filled with the hopeless and insane
but still we are told, that this is the land of liberty
and told to ignore those our country causes pain

Who can hold up their head, and proud proclaim their homeland
while leaders wet the assassins knife by stealth upon the road
this is not the act of a land of law and of justice
no mater who the target, we must live by legal code
What light of hope now shines in the halls of Philadelphia
what words of bravery speak out from the senate floor
what black thoughts now taint with blood, the hopes of a nation
when politicitions make sweat liberty their whore

But I cast my gaze, to the hills of our history,
while I stake my few hopes on the words of our past
For while a spark shines on, in the ashes of these ruins
the light of freedom's fires may displell the shadows cast
And each one of you, who remembers where we came from
proclaim your love liberity and reject the cynics sneer
cast fear upon the pyre of the promices of tyrants
turn away from craven cowards, and true hearts now draw near.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:35 AM

correction "and I fear we may soon see the likes of them again" (line four... sorry folks...) Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: curmudgeon
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:40 AM

Great song Larry. Keep fanning the flames -- Tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 12:47 PM

Thanks! Keep lighting the fires! Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 01:21 PM

Or as Dylan put it:

I pity the poor immigrant
Who wishes he would've stayed home,
Who uses all his power to do evil
But in the end is always left so alone.
That man whom with his fingers cheats
And who lies with ev'ry breath,
Who passionately hates his life
And likewise, fears his death.

I pity the poor immigrant
Whose strength is spent in vain,
Whose heaven is like Ironsides,
Whose tears are like rain,
Who eats but is not satisfied,
Who hears but does not see,
Who falls in love with wealth itself
And turns his back on me.

I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud,
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood,
Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass.
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass.

Good strong song you've got there, Larry. And the thing is, the people who are destroying America think they are the patriots...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 03:42 PM

and they make us all part of their patriot's game! Thanks McGrath,
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:11 PM

Gee... not much interest in the song, eh? ah well... let's see how it does on the next cd... or not... hmmmm. Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: mg
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:13 PM

well I for one don't think America is going to end any time soon. But I could be wrong.

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:22 PM

America ended dear friend, Remember the words of Ben Frnaklynn, the nation that trades liberty for security deserves niether. Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:52 PM

Whoops, another mistype... second verse fourth line...
rob for the wealth OF few from the people in most need
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:59 PM

I agree, it is a good strong song...would it were not so...the circumstances that brought it about, I mean.:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:40 PM

well I for one don't think America is going to end any time soon.

And that's what the song is saying, surely mary - it's a strike against the things that are threatening to destroy what America is supposed to be about. When you get down to it, they are the same things that have always been trying to pull you down and twist you into something that, instead of being the hope of the world are a cancer on the world. They've never succeeded so far.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:52 PM

You know, Larry, the America that I truly believe in ended a long time ago...at places like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, and at the fort where Crazy Horse died from a bayonet in the back. No tears can measure the grief and the loss that was suffered then.

But I do respect Jefferson and Tom Paine and their band of brothers, and I appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

The land is alive, and it will amend the balance in time. People will either become far wiser or they will die miserably, choking on their worthless money and their pointless greed. The spirits of all those who died in defense of this land are watching them. Right now. Matter of fact, the whole world is watching. Remember when we chanted that, before the goon squads at Chicago?

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 11:13 AM

Hi Liitle Hawk... to quote Gary Cooper... "Yup"
Cheers
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: DADGBE
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 11:23 AM

Hi Larry,

Great song! I'd like to put it the San Francisco Folk Club's newsletter "The Folknik." I'll send you a private message about the details.

Thanks for all,
Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 11:39 AM

Larry, I too love the song. I wasn't familiar with air so I searched around and found a MIDI file so I could hear it. Unless the MIDI file is inaccurate, the melody is beautiful but perhaps not one that will get large numbers of people singing. Couldn't we have a melody that almost forces people to learn the words just so they can sing the song? We'd want this song to stay with people on the same level as This Land Is Your Land, Hobo's Lullaby or Solidarity Forever.

What we need is a movement here. “What I mean... take it easy, but take it.”

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: DougR
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 12:35 PM

McGrath: I am confused by your 9:40PM post. Are you saying instead of American being the "hope" of the world, it is a "cancer" on the world?

DougR

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: wilco
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 12:43 PM

We american's (US variety) have a very narrow, skewed sense of history. It is counter-productive to promote USA as "hope" of the world. USA is not the center of the universe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: DougR
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 01:20 PM

Scuse, Wilco, who said the U. S. is?

DougR

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 08:13 PM

Shamrock Shore is on one of the early Planxty albums, I believe, but I will have it out on a CD soon, god willing, and yes do put it in the mag, DAGBE, I will look for your note. Cheers all, Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 08:43 PM

Actually, Doug, the USA could be the hope of the World...or it could be a curse upon the World...depending on which way the pendulum swings in the next few short years. If enough people of genuine goodwill step forward, it will swing in a positive direction. If not, it will swing us all into an abyss, and the USA will be remembered as a onetime promise of hope that turned into a monstrosity and devoured the World.

As I said, it all depends on people of goodwill...in the USA and elsewhere. It depends on each and every one of us in every thought and every act. It takes more courage to love than it does to hate. It takes a great deal more courage, because to LOVE one must overcome FEAR, whereas to hate one must only indulge it.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 02:20 PM

Corrected version....
Ghosts of our nation
word, Lorcan Otway all rights reserved
Tune The Shamrock Shore.

Farewell to the land, of Jefferson and Franklin
Farewell to the dreams of the good Thomas Paine
We have sacrificed our freedom, on the alter of security
and I fear we may not soon see the likes of both again,
For this land was more than a flag or a slogan
this land was more than its rocks or its clay
This land was a gift given us by great thinkers
a dream which lesser men have now cast away


The rule of law is hobbled and no rights are now held sacred
except the right to steal and plunder in the name of corporate greed
While bible thumping patriots, in the guise of elder statesmen
rob for the wealth of few from the people in most need
Now our prisons are full of the men of no property
and back alleys are filled with the hopeless and insane
but still we are told, that this is the land of liberty
and told to ignore those whom our country causes pain

Who can hold up their head, and proud proclaim their homeland
while leaders wet the assassins knife by stealth upon the road
this is not the act of a land of law and of justice
no mater who the target, we must live by legal code
What light of hope now shines in the halls of Philadelphia
what words of bravery speak out from the senate floor
what black thoughts now taint with blood, the hopes of a nation
when politician pimps make sweat liberty their whore

But I cast my gaze, to the hills of our history,
while I stake my few hopes on the words of our past
For while a spark shines on, in the ashes of these ruins
the light of freedom's fires may dispel the shadows cast
And each one of you, who remembers where we came from
proclaim your love liberty and reject the cynics sneer
cast fear upon the pyre of the promises of tyrants
turn away from craven cowards, and true hearts now draw near.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 03:44 PM

Great song, Larry. I hope to hear it sung one day.

As long as you're in the editing mode, you might note:

not 'wet' but whet
not 'alter' but altar
"sweat" liberty= sweet liberty?

:)

Thanks for sharing your songs with the 'Cat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 04:31 PM

Thanks ebbie... right on all counts... thanks again Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 04:36 PM

ONE MORE TRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ghosts of our nation
word, Lorcan Otway all rights reserved
Tune The Shamrock Shore.

Farewell to the land, of Jefferson and Franklin
Farewell to the dreams of the good Thomas Paine
We have sacrificed our freedom, on the altar of security
and I fear we may not soon see the likes of both again,
For this land was more than a flag or a slogan
this land was more than its rocks or its clay
This land was a gift given us by great thinkers
a dream which lesser men have now cast away


The rule of law is hobbled and no rights are now held sacred
except the right to steal and plunder in the name of corporate greed
While bible thumping patriots, in the guise of elder statesmen
rob for the wealth of few from the people in most need
Now our prisons are full of the men of no property
and back alleys are filled with the hopeless and insane
but still we are told, that this is the land of liberty
and told to ignore those whom our country causes pain

Who can hold up their head, and proud proclaim their homeland
while leaders whet the assassins knife by stealth upon the road
this is not the act of a land of law and of justice
no mater who the target, we must live by legal code
What light of hope now shines in the halls of Philadelphia
what words of bravery speak out from the senate floor
what black thoughts now taint with blood, the hopes of a nation
when politician pimps make sweet liberty their whore

But I cast my gaze, to the hills of our history,
while I stake my few hopes on the words of our past
For while a spark shines on, in the ashes of these ruins
the light of freedom's fires may dispel the shadows cast
And each one of you, who remembers where we came from
proclaim your love liberty and reject the cynics sneer
cast fear upon the pyre of the promises of tyrants
turn away from craven cowards, and true hearts now draw near.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 04:46 PM

"Are you saying instead of American being the "hope" of the world, it is a "cancer" on the world?"

No I didn't. I said that there have always been things that pushed in that direction, and that they have always needed to be resisted. There are things like that in every nation. But America is so big that it makes far more difference to the world, either way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 10:38 AM

Larry, Ebbie got there first with the comments.

Re: some earlier posts. Our founders envisioned the USA as "The shining city on the hill," an ideal. The ideal still exists but we don't seem to be living up to it as a nation, do we?
Eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: Declan
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 11:00 AM

Great song Larry but I'm a bit confused about the air.

It looks to me as if it fits The Green Fields of Canada (Farewell to the land of Shilealigh & Shamrock), which is on one of the early Planxty Records. I'm aware of two songs called The Shamrock Shore, both recorded by Paul Brady - Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore (from Welcome Here Kind Stranger) or "The Shamrock Shore" which starts Ye Brave young Sons of Erin's Isle (which is on the Matt Molloy, Tommy Peoples & Paul Brady Record) but neither of these seem to fit the words.

There's another air that might fit on an Andy Irvine solo album (Rainy Sunday's/Windy Dreams?) that starts Farewell to oul' Ireland the land of my Childhood.

Is it one of these, or some other air?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song about the end of America
From: InOBU
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 04:31 PM

The Green Fields of Canada (Farewell to the land of Shilealigh & Shamrock That's the one! I always heard it referred to as the Shamrock shore (as opposed to Paddy's Green S S, for example...) But right you are, it IS the green fields of Canada.
Cheers and thanks
Larry
PS Ye Brave young sons of Erin's Isle is one of my favs as well.