Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)

Subject: need song author
From:
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 07:29 AM

I have seen the lyrics for "The Klan" several places but without author. Does anyone know who wrote this song or who is rumored to have written it? We used to sing it in the 60's during the civil rights movement, but perhaps it is older than that. Any information would be useful. Thanks very much.

Subject: RE: need song author
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 10:34 AM

If it's the song I think it might be, it was written by Malvina Reynolds. I think Pete Seeger had it on his first GAZETTE LP on folkways---but maybe not.

Subject: RE: need song author
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 01:46 PM

If it's the song called "The Klan" in the database (click here), the Sing Out! song reprints book attributes it to Alan Arkin and David Arkin, copyright 1951 by Sanga Music.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: need song author
From: --seed
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 03:08 PM

Joe, the front door is closed again today and I just managed to get to the threads via your Delta Blues link in the Mudcat Trouble forum. Anyway, at the end of the Mudcat Blues link I posted this--which refers to the thread we're on now:

I got on several times yesterday, the first time via a Joe Offer link, but lost it after reading one thread and clicking Forum Home. Later I got on through the front door, got on a lyrics request thread that sent Joe postal, started to post two different responses, gave up because I couldn't get them right. Finally, I decided that the best thing to tell Joe, who must at times feel like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain for all eternity, Camus argued that, in the end, Sisyphus was happy. So Joe, just keep posting those links and explaining how to format lyrics into all eternity, and recognize how much we all appreciate you--and be happy. --seed (someone who spent the last 38 years teaching the same things over and over again to kids who would ask for personal explanations of that which I had just spent half a period explaining, demonstrating, and leading the same kids through hands-on practice... God, I love teaching photography. --seed

Subject: RE: need song author
From: Big Mick
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 11:59 PM

Hey Joe, (geez, that still sounds like a song title)

I know it is off topic, but I want to second seed's comment. I know we tease and make silly mistakes, but you, my friend, are a Godsend. I really appreciate all you do. Except when you chastise me for cyber chasing the fair Alison. ****huge grin****

Thanks,

Mick

Subject: RE: need song author
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Nov 98 - 04:37 AM

Ah, Seed, when you have to teach people things over and over again, don't you wish you could use cut-and-paste like I do???
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Amos
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 01:14 PM

THE KLAN
(Alan and David Arkin)

Am
The countryside was cold and still
C
There was a cross upon the hill
Am
This cold cross wore a burning hood
F Am
To hide its rotten heart of wood

Am
Father I hear the iron sound
Dm Eb Am
Of hoofbeats on the frozen ground

Down from the hills the riders came
Jesus, it was a crying shame
To see the blood upon their whips
And hear the snarling of their lips

Mother I feel a stabbing pain
Blood flows down like a summer rain

Now each one wore a mask of white
To hide his cruel face from sight
and each one sucks a little breath
Out of the empty lungs of death

Sister lift my bloody head
It's so lonesome to be dead

He who travels with the Klan
He is a monster, not a man
Underneath that white disguise
I have looked into his eyes

Brother, will you stand with me
it's not easy to be free

---

I learned this from my older brother's first girlfriend, a winsome barefoot raven-haired beauty named Pebble, in the spring of 1964. It made the hair on the back of my head stand up to hear such truth spoken to power in a song.

A

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: goatfell
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 01:27 PM

the song was writen by Alan and David Arkin

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 02:37 PM

I knew Alan and David. I think the song is more Alan than David.

Alan in addition to being a fine actor and director, is a creative guy. He is a good musician and guitar picker and was one of the best of the Second City in Chicago. One of the best bits was his role as a Puerto-Rican street guy next to Barbara Harris as a social worker.

David was a good songwriter and one of his accomplishments was as contributor to re-writing many of the hymns in the Unitarian Songbook.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Effsee
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 11:26 PM

According to the sleeve notes from the LP, "The Angry Muse", Argo ZDA 83, Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger, the song and music was written by Alan Grey in 1951, and "is by far the best song on the subject"

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 11:31 PM

This page gives quite a list of the musical compositions of Alan Arkin. It says "The Klan" was copyrighted in 1951, written by Alan Grey, pseudonym of Alan Arkin.
I found a very powerful recording of the song by Richie Havens.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Effsee
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 11:33 PM

Is this the actor Alan Arkin we're taliking about here? Or someone else?

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 03:22 AM

Yes, he was an actor in MASH on one or two episodes.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 04:09 PM

I have an old Lomax song book, circa 1961, which may contain this song. I have to verify. I know I saw it in a "Sing Out" during the same era. I performed it on occasion back then. I remember it as a powerful statement at a time when I was personally aware, from visits to southeast Texas in the 1950's, of the hatred and discrimination visited upon black residents in that region. I still recall the separate drinking fountains, the "third" rest room or separate facility for "coloreds" and Jim Crow seating.

Louis Armstrong's "Black and Blue" and Josh White's "Strange Fruit" are two others that spring to mind.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Klan (Alan and David Arkin)
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 06:53 PM

Alan Arkin, the actor, was born in 1936, I believe, making him just four years older than me. The next information, from "Wikipedia," may shed light on the subject. David was Alan's father.

For the actor of the same name, see David Arkin.
David I. Arkin (died October 8, 1980[1]) was a teacher, painter, writer, and lyricist, and is the father of actor Alan Arkin.

Arkin was born in the United States[2]. In 1945, Arkin moved his family to Los Angeles, California to take a teaching job. Arkin attempted to obtain work in the entertainment industry, but was unsuccessful. An eight-month Hollywood strike cost Arkin a set designer job, but the greater blow was as a result of the McCarthy "witch hunt". Arkin, a leftist, was accused of being a communist but Arkin refused to answer questions regarding his political affiliation. As a result, he was fired from his teaching job and was unable to gain work in Hollywood. Arkin challenged his dismissal, but did not achieve exoneration until after his death. He died of cancer in October, 1980, at the age of 73 at his home in Silverlake, California.[3]

Arkin's most memorable song-writing contribution was in creating the lyrics to the song "Black and White," with music by Earl Robinson in 1954.[4] The song was written to celebrate the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education striking down racial segregation in public schools.

Note that "The Klan" is not mentioned in this piece.