Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxton)

Subject: Lyr Add: GOODMAN, SCHWERNER AND CHANEY (T Paxton)
From: voyager
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 05:41 PM

Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney
(Tom Paxton)

The night air is heavy, no cool breezes blow.
The sounds of the voices are worried and low.
Desperately wondering and desperate to know,
About Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.

Calm desperation and flickering hope,
Reality grapples like a hand on the throat.
For you live in the shadow of ten feet of rope,
If you're Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

The Pearl River was dragged and two bodies were found,
But it was a blind alley for both men were brown.
So they all shrugged their shoulders and the search it went on,
For Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

Pull out the dead bodies from the ooze of the dam.
Take the bodies to Jackson all accordin' to plan.
With the one broken body do the best that you can,
It's the body of young James Chaney.

The nation was outraged and shocked through and through.
Call J. Edgar Hoover. He'll know what to do.
For they've murdered two white men, and a colored boy too
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

James Chaney your body exploded in pain,
And the beating they gave you is pounding my brain.
And they murdered much more with their dark bloody chains
And the body of pity lies bleeding.

The pot-bellied copper shook hands all around,
And joked with the rednecks who came into town
And they swore that the murderer soon would be found
And they laughed as they spat their tobacco.

From the 1965 album: Ain't That News; that album is reissued in 2001 - with Ramblin' Boy - as a 2-on-1 album: Ramblin Boy/Ain't That News

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney(T. Paxt
From: voyager
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 05:48 PM

Hear also -

"Michael, Andrew, and James"
From Richard and Mimi Farina's -
    Celebrations For a Grey Day

voyager

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney(T. Paxton)
From: DonMeixner
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 05:51 PM

This song has been on my mind of late. I wonder why?

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney(T. Paxton)
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:14 PM

As a real document of those sordid times of fear, pain, blood and paranoia, mixed with rays of hope for future change, this song by Tom Paxton caught what went down better than any TV news story or article in any paper. Finding it here on the very day that sickly wrinkled moron was found guilty all these years (DECADES) later, is not only excruciating for me to relive, but it is entirely appropriate for it to be here as a reminder. Thanks for posting this song of Tom's. It's a great way for those not alive then to feel something of the emotions--hate, fear, pain, and, yes, the sincere dedication and hopefulness of the era too. This latter day verdict is important! It shows us that justice sometimes is meted out--albeit rarely.

I hope he'll get the rest of his puny life in a gray stone prison where he must mingle with men who strongly resent what he did and that he escaped justice for so very long.

As B.D. once wrote, "Now is the time for your tears!"

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney(T. Paxton)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 08:22 AM

This song is already in the DT with the unfortunate misspelling GOODWIN, SCHWERNER AND CHANEY.

It's also in another thread correctly spelled: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner & Chaney.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxt
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 08:52 AM

Jim, it's a song that shouldn't be forgotten -- especially now.

A friend of mine back then was in SNCC. She'd been in the South, registering voters and marching with King, and was very, very happy to return to Chicago alive.

Somewhere I have to original Paxton LP....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxton)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 03:54 PM

I've found my copy of the LP. We'll probably play it in our radio show on Sunday.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxton)
From: PoppaGator
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 04:10 PM

The liner notes in the link to the Farina's album notes that Carolyn Hester also wrote a song in tribute to these three. Anyone know it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxton)
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 25 Jun 05 - 11:10 AM

Sixty years.

I got my wish.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney (T Paxton)
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 25 Jun 05 - 12:04 PM

Remember also Phil Ochs' "Days of Decision" - "Three bodies buried in the Mississippi mud, these are the days of decision".