Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!

Subject: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 07:21 AM

The Song of Ashcroft's Captialist Army
To the tune of Trotsky's Red Army
Words Lorcan

On march our armies for Democracy
Spreading the joys of the land of the free
The foes of free trade in the darkness will hide
plotting and planing against our God's side

Chorus:
But, Our powerful tanks and our glorious bombers
Our Brave young soldiers who will kill or die
To crush the foe for our Capitalist Union
Will spread freedom for you and I

In other countries the press is not free,
Reporters spread lies about you and about me
So our armies oppose those cowards and bums
We'll liberate their press at the point of our guns

These terrorist nations control all our oil
our standard of living they hope to control
Pastures of plenty in lands that aren't free
denying their bounty to you and to me

These criminals claim they deserve sovereignty
They attempt thumb their nose at the land of the free
We'll crush all resistance to our clarion call
To the will of our stock market they will soon fall

Afghans and Iraqis have learned of our might
Now on to Syria we will press on the fight
China and Cuba still long to be free
Then to liberate France and on to Germany

In Scandinavia the reds rule the land
North in Canada the Socialist can still stand
Now we will make them tremble at the ring of our boot
While each foe of Capital our soldiers will shoot...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 07:29 AM

They attempt thumb their nose at the land of the free
whoops
They attemp TO thumb their nose at the land of the free

Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 07:40 AM

One more verce...

The crowds that cheered for Sadam now cheer for our Bush
You see that they love us, for cheering is the proof
They cheered their dictator before his armed ranks
But we came in peace in our humvees and tanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: alanabit
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 08:42 AM

Let me too offer my congratulations to that elephant - for trampling on a rabbit...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 10:05 AM

One more verse!

You yellow dogs who whine about civil liberty
How dare you criticize the land of the free
Two million we've put in our nations proud jails
We have room enough for our critics as well

Final Chorus:
Our Power Tanks and our glorious bombers
Spreading the joys of the land of the free
The foes of Christ and our Capitalist Union
Will rue the day we crossed the sea
or the northern boarder
or the southern boarder
Will rue the day WE CROSSED OUR SEA!

Note on singing this song, lots of brass and drums, the verses sung in a breathy voice, and the choruses loud with lots of rising and falling harmony, like the Red Army Choir....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 10:09 AM

Another whoops... in the last verse, of course, it should read our powerFUL tanks ....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 10:43 AM

PS All rights reserved Otway 2003... as if it matters ... Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: GUEST,Jennie
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 11:21 AM

Dear INOBU. I knew this wasn't going to be a 'Pro America' song before I even looked here, but please answer me this. Where on earth would you (or anyone) SING a song like this?

I'm trying to picture an audience that would even sit still til the end of the song, and I simply can't. Are there places where you live that have cafes or coffee houses where this kind of material would even be taken seriously? All I can picture is some gloomy basement in the 1940s with five or six dedicated revolutionaries.

I'm not trying to be critical of your work, just the idea that anyone would be able to sing this song outside their living room.

If this is simply therapy for you, that's fine, but I know you're promoting albums as well as songbooks, so there must be SOME commercial intent.

With all respect

Jennie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:14 PM

Hi Jennie... the truth is not always popular. Think about it... there is a long tradition of singing the truth to power. We have always been poor, but who wants to be John Phillip Susa. Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:15 PM

Oh, and by the way, the audience of WBAI listens, and a few folks who listen to Rick Fielding's show... who needs to take money from the mainstream when they back murder for Halliburton. Cheers again, Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:29 PM

Thats right Larry the truth isn't often told. By either side.
Do you think this may be just a little one sided? I hate jingoism as much as most of us here which means I hate it more than the next guy
but don't you feel in the heat of passion you may be tad bit strident?

Perhaps I am missing a key bit of subtle irony in your lyric that I have read.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:40 PM

Dear Don, your tax money has been used to invade a nation that has not attacked us, a nation that has spent 91 billion dollars in war since we elected, excuse me, appointed an idiot with a double digit IQ into the seat of power, gave him an arsinal and allowed him to invade a nation for the benifit of Halliburton, then pass on the costs to thee and me, while cutting the benifits for the veterans, and at the same time cutting back on taxes for his own class. Strident? Where was the strident language when Russia went into Czechoslovakia, oh that there was Russian stridant language during Prauge Spring, of the there was strident German language during the march into poland. Tonight I am singing at a gig, for Lynne Stewart, a lawyer facing fourty years in jail, at her age a life sentence, for being a voice for justice, a lawyer doing a lawyers job in this nation where tyrany grows in leaps and bounds while most of her people wring their hands, but not all her people Millions have marched ... and yes Jeannie that is my audience, my audience, Jeannie are those of us here in downtown New York who SAW the attack on the Trade Center, who lost people we knew, who KNOW it was not for reason of jealousy, but because of a rapacious foriegn policy then, with now has turned to be more like Britians thin red line, like Russia's red army, and even like the Wermacht. I have not BEGUN to become strident Don.
Respectfull,
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:43 PM

Hi Larry,

Oh, then I did miss the irony. ;-)

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 01:53 PM

InOBU, I don't say you're wrong. In fact, I tend to agree with the greater part of what you say. But the way you say it gives me the feeling that you're as certain of your own rightness as the dudes who flew the planes into the Trade Center were of theirs.

If we could get rid of everyone who has a total conviction of their own rightness and that anyone who disagrees with them is essentially evil, without regard to where they stand on the left-right scale, we might actually achieve peace. We might not have enough people left to maintain a technological civilization (which some would say would be a good thing, but I'm not prepared to give up central heating, fresh food in the winter, modern dentistry, steel guitar strings, and the internet), but we might have peace. Maybe.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 02:35 PM

I don't think you did miss the irony Don, otherwise you'd be commenting on how you had never realised InOBU was such a strident supporter of gung-ho aggressive nationalism.

The point is, triumphalism is always a bit ridiculous when you aren't caught up in it, and using the language and style of a type of triumphalism that we can all see as overblown and bombastic is quite a neat trick.

If he'd used the equivalent type of thing from the American tradition, I suspect quite a lot of people wouldn't be aware of the irony.

Maybe we need the Red Army song InOBU is parodying.

Here's the text of one not a million miles removed - "Meadowland" - here is a link to a site with a Red Army Choir version - and here is the link to a Real Audio sound file of the song)

Meadowland, meadowland
Meadows green fields in blossom
Merrily greet the plucky heroes
Yes the heroes of the great Red Army

Maidens fair, why d'you cry
Blushing maids are sad and weary,
Having to part from handsome lovers,
As the boys go off to join the army.

Oh maidens dear, never fear,
Staunch and faithful are your lovers.
Wish us good speed for we are leaving
To defend our happy land of Soviets.

Oh Steppe land so vast and free,
Tilled by flourishing Kolkhozes,
Everywhere factories and houses
Newly built, the fruit of Revolution.

Oh working folks, peasant folks,
Keep on building, kee[ on tilling.
Staunchly we hold our constant vigil,
We the people of the land of Soviets.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 04:01 PM

Ah McGrath, I dearly love medowland, but Trotsky's red army is a different song. I just finished a recording of Ashcroft's Army, but it is on 8 track date, and there is NO way I can get my computers to record anymore... I am broke and disheartened. I should sell out, as Jeanie suggests above, but MY genie would purge our little colective of two of me if I did. As to my surity and the trade center, my dear Mudchick... I am sorry to say, it is unQuakerly of me to say it... but that is a foolish remark. I am as sure that it is wrong to invade another nation as I need to be. If you think we should be open to the thought of invation of soverign nations with which we are not at war, it is possible you may be closer in mindset to the Saudis who attacked my city than I, for you are ready to support killing unprovoked.
Cheers
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 11:44 PM

Well, previewed it at a concert tonight, and yes Jeanie, the audience stayed and loved it, it will be premiered tommmorow morning on WBAI Robert Knights show... I figured away around the tec prob. Kev...
Cheers all
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 06:36 AM

Jeannie, hard as this will be for some to understand, many a fine song was written not for any commercial gain, just to make a point. Sometimes in making the point, a song will overstate its case. Call it poetic licence, or legitimate hyperbole. No such danger for Larry - the case couldn't be over-stated. As someone said above, we've just seen an elephant tread on a rabbit, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

All the same, Larry, I can't believe those lyrics are your own work. That spelling looks way too boring and conventional. Anyway, you've got an audience all right, so keep churching 'em out. And keep your pecker up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 07:28 AM

Fionn... have to admit, I cheated, I spell checked and cut and pasted from my publisher program! Of course, Genie, (me own Genie, not Jeanie above, ) found that I left out a n in planning, so there we go... We just played the song on WBAI this morning. I hope Jeannie was listening, it is such a stiring tune, she may have been inspired to ... well vote out of office a guy who sends young people to kill and die then picks their pockets... poor old verterans benefits...
Cheers all
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: toadfrog
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 10:34 PM

Don: "A little strident"? Larry?!! Oh, not one bit!! HOW could you say such a thing?????????!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 11:01 PM

Toad,

I guess I was lost in the momment.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 11:27 PM

What is more strident than a guy with a double digit IQ and a bunch of 2,500 pound bombs a shit load of missiles and YOUR TAX DOLLARS!!!!
Jeeze loueeezzzz guys!
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 11:52 PM

Ah Christ Larry you and I are on the same page with our affection for George and John and their band of thugs. I agree that George Bush couldn't lie straight in bed. And everyone here in the Cat knows I think JOhn Ashcroft is the anti-christ and the most dangerous man in America. Patriot act indeed.!

All right Larry I'll cut the shit. You sent me your Sorcha Dorcha CD and I have listened to it and enjoyed it. Regarding your victory song anti-Ashcroft Socialist rant. You've written better songs. You've written much better songs, every other song I've heard from you is a better song. What is wrong with subtlty? The structure seems to have cadence and scanning issues. Maybe you jumped the gun with this one before you refined it. From my experience with your songs that I have heard, this ain't even close to your best effort.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 08:03 AM

Don... my dear dear friend... You have to get the full effect, I will send you the rough tracks of the 3rd CD, with the version that WBAI played... YOU SEE it is the LACK of subtly that is the point! We sent an army in killing thousands for nothing, for nothing for nothing, Now, I continue to write versce such as

Your child wore no uniform
Your child held no gun
your child had no time to grow to anyone
what your child would have done
if America only waited

Impatient to count the votes
Impatient to see if nations togethe would work to be free
but we drop death from the sky and death from our guns
and shed not a tear for the old or young
But we only care for our daughters and sons
whos lives are swept away in our wars...

BUT THIS song, has cybals clashing, snare and base drums, massed chior, and sounds like the Red Army, or the Wermacht or, yes, the US military band, you know the oximoron, Military Music... Now, I was not going to put it on the CD until I got an email from a listener to the radio who wrote me, after calling the station for the adress, he said, this song is PURE evil, I loved it.

That's the point, we can't always sing gently
Cheers
Larry
PS It is as subtle as Thom of Bedlam, eh?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 08:39 AM

"anti-Ashcroft Socialist rant" -

Not exactly. On the face of it it's a triumphalist pro-Capitalist rant. However level one irony detectors reveal that "on the face of it" isn't the whole truth, and the assumption kicks in that it's simplistic anti-capitalist rant.

However there's another layer to it, because it's done in the form of a pastiche of a style of hyped-up Sovietist bombast of a past era.

So it directs the listeners' attention to a past authoritarian regime, which masqueraded as world liberators, while at the same time it systematically betrayed all the idealism on which it was founded; and it invites us to recognise that there are essential similarities between the claims made on behalf of that regime, and those made by and on behalf of the one which is riding so high at the moment.

More subtle than it might appear to be at first glance. Naturally.

(Agreed that "Meadowlands" is a great tune. I put the link in to give a hint of the genre, because I imagine there are generations around now who haven't a clue about that kind of thing.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 09:02 AM

Thanks Larry

I am aware that I am very capable of missing the obvious point. :-)
Send it along and I'll try it on again.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:21 AM

Hi Don, PM me the snail mail... and I will post it, I just did a Spike Mulligan on it, adding whistles to cue the crowd chearing, then big chearing crownds...helicopters, lots of fun stuff, Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:53 AM

Ah Spike Jones?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Victory Song for the USA!
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 06:11 PM

That's the bloke... Cheers Larry