Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Sep 13 - 05:17 PM

FWIW, though Brand attempts to "improve" many songs, and often rewrites extensively - and sometimes repeatedly - he didn't write *all* of his "Guantanamo Bay."

All that seems to be known in this case is Brand's remark in "The Ballad Mongers" (1962) that he learned "Guantanamo Bay" from "Murray Phillips,...ex-Navy singer," in 1959. Phillips remembered the song "from his service in Cuba."

Brand then quotes the first stanza, essentially as he sings it on the album "Every Inch a Sailor."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 26 Sep 13 - 02:22 PM

Oh lord, sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Sep 13 - 07:43 PM

Not "hot-ptui," of course, but "Hatuey," a brand of Cuban beer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Sep 13 - 07:28 PM

It's nice to have this come back up.
Barry wrote the song more than 7 years ago and died 4 years ago. Barry's songs seem to work better being heard than read. When Barry sang this one, it worked.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 25 Sep 13 - 06:45 PM

Nice start for a song, Barry. Like others, I'm finding it a little uncentred as yet.

Who are the girls in the suits?

Is our hero happy to be buggered all day? He sounds kind of jaunty about it.

D'you know what I think it needs to make it really fizz? A story:

Guantanamo Bay, hey, I'm on my way.
I won't be coming back from there, not in manys a day.
Guantanamo Bay, Am I here to stay?

Chorus: Where the sun shines hard on the dogs in the yard
             An I'm here to say there's no place in the world like Guantanamo Bay.

'Twas in the spring of 2012 I left old Peshawar,
On the way to visit my grandma, me knowing naught of war
I took a lift with some likely lads to Herat to make my way
And the next I knew I was sad and blue, in the cells of the CIA…

(Well, you see where I'm coming from, though the scansion, rhyme scheme, verse form and basically everything else doesn't match what you're doing!)

Subject: Lyr Add; GUANTANAMO BAY (Oscar Brand)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Sep 13 - 01:30 AM

I have checked these lyrics against an actual recording. I have boldfaced the words that are different from the version radriano posted above.


GUANTANAMO BAY
As sung by Oscar Brand on "Military Songs" (2011)

At Guantanamo Bay, we're confined to our quarters.
We're scratchin' and sweatin'; we're waitin' for orders.
We're watchin' the harbor; we're countin' the wrecks,
And we're wondering which we'll be shipping on next.

At Guantanamo Bay—call her Gitmo for short—
Not much of a base, much less of a port,
One look at the docks and you know that you're seein'
The god-damnedest hole in the whole Caribbean.

CHORUS: So hurrah for old Gitmo, on Cuba's fair shore,
The home of the cockroach, the flea, and the whore!
We'll sing of her praises and pray for the day
We'll get the hell out of Guantanamo Bay.

Here you pay twenty cents for a bottle o' beer.
They call it Hatuey and it tastes mighty queer.
There's an Indian chief on the label to show
The Indian sign makes you go, go, go, go.

When the U. S. Alaska comes steamin' in view
To scrape off her bottom and pick up a crew,
Nary a seaman was fit for the sea.
They'd all been on leave and they all had VD. CHORUS

Guantanamo City has hundreds of doors,
And every one's jammed with hundreds of whores.
They hang from the windows with stark naked chests.
They knock out your brains with their low-hanging breasts.

Well, the boys in my outfit are workin' a plan.
We're savin' each nickel and dollar we can,
And we'll buy TNT, and one sunshiny day,
We'll blow up this goddamn Guantanamo Bay. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Guantanamo Bay (Barry Finn)
From: GUEST,kgb
Date: 13 Sep 13 - 09:44 PM

Oscar Brand wrote "Guantanamo Bay" reprinted in radriano's post. Oscar recorded on his navy LP, "Every Inch a Sailor."

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 01:48 PM

Hi Eric
Glad it's coming through clearer, thanks.

MickT, thanks for the link, nice song though I wish I could've heard it all, it sounds like such a nice place to be???

Barry

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: MickT
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 08:15 AM

OK so that was me..........

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 08:14 AM

http://www.dekeleonard.com/music.htm

You need to check the link to Deke leonard's website for an original recording of Guantanamo Bay

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 11:09 AM

Makes much more sense right now.

Radriano, the version you cite can be found on at least one of Oscar Brand's albums.

Subject: Lyr Add: GUANTANAMO BAY (Barry Finn)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 01:09 AM

Well thanks all for your comments. Yes there's a bit of a calypso in there but just a speck & it does scan, though it's hard to see it without singing it. I guess my biggest problem is that a few people don't know what to make of the song or where it's supposed to take them. Well I see that as my problem, why sing a song if you don't know where it's going. Well believe me I'm not trying to send you on a vacation in, Cuba whither you're with us or against us. It is a ridiculous, ironic & delusional song about a place & situation that's as ridiculous & ironic as the place & situation that if it weren't so delusional more than a few would be laughing to keep from crying.
Any way I think me remodeling job is just about done. I thank you again for all your comments & hope you'll give more thoughts to the way it's been polished(?) up.
Barry


                     Guantanamo Bay (words & tune by Barry Finn 2/24/06)


Guantanamo Bay, hey, I'm on my way.
I won't be coming back from there, not in manys a day.
Guantanamo Bay, Am I here to stay?

Chorus: Where the sun shines hard on the dogs in the yard
             An I'm here to say there's no place in the world like Guantanamo Bay.

Let's all get naked, in Guantanamo Bay
Lie in the sand; put our tush in a Bush, where the nights are gay
Let's all get cute with the girls in the suits

It's hard to believe it, that I even made it here
I'm a lazy do nothing, no good to no one, without a care
My luck's so fine, who could be so kind, to land me here in a spa so far from grit & grime

I'm getting island fever, I can't handle the truth
I'm getting buggered all day, can't get from the 'Git', I'm so young I'm a youth
Where the akee & rice, & salt fish is nice

I'm dying here, I live in fear
I don't think I've done wrong, I just wrote me a song of a fair place so queer
This ain't what I thought, this ain't what I bought

I must be mad, I guess I've just been had
I'm told I've got to go, that I don't know what they thought I knowed, it's bad
I've MIA'd, I've been CIA'd, I've christen, I've been crossed been kicked I've been tossed

To where the sun shines hard on the dogs in the yard
An I'm here to say there's no place in the world like Guantanamo Bay

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 04:21 PM

Barry,

It has potential for real irony!!

What it needs, I think, is to be re-written----so it scans and can be sung to the tune of "Jamaica Farewell" !!! Now, that might work...

Art

Down the way in Guantanamo Bay,
I was raped by the guards from the USA,
And the dogs bit hard
Out there in the yard,
And it seems I'm stuck right here to stay!

Sad today, don't want to stay,
I won't be home for many a day,
My heart is down--my head is turnin' around,
I miss a burka clad gal in Kabul town...

BARRY, you take over!! As I'm fond of saying: "If ya don't have a sense of humor, it isn't funny!"

But maybe it's just too sad to be funny at all!

Respectfully, really, and with admiration most of the time,

Art

Subject: Lyr Add: GUANTANAMO BAY (from Oscar Brand)
From: radriano
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 10:55 AM

Hi Barry,

Interesting lyrics.

Have you heard the other "Guantanamo Bay"? Sung to the melody of The Irish Washerwoman:


Guantanamo Bay, call it Gitmo for short
Not much of a base and far less of a port
One look at the piers and you'll know that you're seein'
The goddamdest hole in the whole Caribbean

So hurrah then for Gitmo, on Cuba's fair shore
The home of the cockroach, the flea, and the whore
We'll sing of its praises and wait for the day
We get the hell out of Guantanamo Bay

In Guantanamo Bay we're confined to our quarters
We're scratching and sweating, we're waiting for orders
We're watching the bay and surveying the wrecks
And wondering which we'll be shipping on next

When the cruiser Alaska hove into view
To clean off her bottom and pick up a crew
Nary a sailor was ready for sea
They'd all been on leave and they all had VD

Guantanamo City has hundreds of doors
And behind every one there are hundreds of whores
They lean on the windows with stark naked chests
And beat out your brains with their low-hanging breasts

My buddies and I have a hell of a plan
We're saving each nickel and dime that we can
We'll buy TNT and then one sunny day
We'll blow up this goddam Guantanamo Bay



Notes from the book: Guantanamo Bay, located in Cuba's Oriente Province on the island's southeast corner, is America's oldest overseas Naval Base. The United States government originally leased the 45 square miles of land and water from the Cuban government in 1903, for use as a coaling station … After Castro's revolution in 1958-59, Guantanamo City and its hundreds of doors* became off-limits to American personnel (though rumor has it that Marines could still obtain blow jobs from enterprising young women throught the holes in the chain-link fence surrounding the base). Between this and the reference to the 1944 visit of USS Alaska, the song's date of original composition can be fixed fairly closely. It was still in oral circulation as recently as the mid-1970s, when the editor of this collection learned it at Gitmo.

* Guantanamo City has hundreds of doors, and behind every one there are hundreds of whores. These first two lines of the fifth verse refer to an allegation also heard about Olongopo in the Philippines.

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 10:34 AM

I believe it could use a bit of work, Barry. The song seems to be headed in two directions, vis. that of a political protest and toward a lay in the sun relaxing and listening to calypso. Am I correct that the rhythm seems calypsonian?

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Feb 06 - 11:42 AM

Refresh
I checked this from another computer & this thread doesn't show up, how come?
Barry

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Feb 06 - 06:56 AM

It's different from everything else - it might even be 'creative'!!! Shock! Horrors!

A friend and I when engaged in theatre used to amuse ourselves by discussing what would have happened to authors who had produced 'hits' if they had beem met with dickheads incapable of understanding what they were on about...

"What's this - 'a man for all Seasons'? What a stupid title for play! It'll never catch on! And you've got this character wandering around talking to he audience and all that rubbish - you even call him 'The Common Man' - what sort of stupidity is this?"

You get the idea...


If you do want to polish it a bit...

the 'buggered all day' I like - it is an Aussie expression that referes to being tired out, exhauseted, not the apparent 'bestial act'.


"go for the ironic throughout with perhaps a calypso style."

I'd recommend that, myself... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 25 Feb 06 - 04:04 AM

A fine song, with a lot of allusions.
Let it stand as it is.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Feb 06 - 01:04 AM

I've got no responce right now, it take me a bit to process but thanks.
Barry

Subject: RE: A new song; Guantanamo Bay
From: sinpelo
Date: 25 Feb 06 - 12:57 AM

It's a bit hard to see where you're going with this, Barry. It sort of hovers between ironic descriptions of an idyllic island in the sun and a place where you get "buggered all day".

I did pick up on the "island fever" which, I presume, explains delusional vision of an island paradise. Perhaps you could emphasise this a little more.

There are two very good 'hooks' here (ironic and delusional) and I think you need to utilise them to better effect. For example: You could begin by writing as if about a paradise island and 'wake up' to the realities in the last verse. Alternatively, you could go for the ironic throughout with perhaps a calypso style.

Just my opinion, mind...... bearing in mind that I'm a tosser and you don't have to take a scrap of notice. I think you've got a good song but it still needs work.

Subject: Lyr Add: GUANTANAMO BAY (Barry Finn)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Feb 06 - 12:25 AM

Well I don't know what happened to me. This morning the words Guantanamo Bay jump up & whacked me in the face & about an hour later when I stopped writting this was written on the paper (after a bit of reworking). I'm still not to sure if it's a bit to long for the modern attention span, I'll have to consult Bert about his 3 minute rule & see if this sides by. The tune is a little strange as you can see it's not that easy to scan but believe me it works. I'm sorry I don't know how to write muce or how to put it up on a post. If anyone wants to here it or sing it PM me & I'll send you my tel# & would be happy to sing it to you or to your answering machine.

       Guantanamo Bay (words & tune by Barry Finn 2/24/06)


Guantanamo Bay, hey, I'm on my way
I won't be coming back from there, not in manys a day
Guantanamo Bay, I'm here to stay

Chorus:
Where the sun shines hard on the dogs in the yard
An I'm here to say there's no place in the world like Guantanamo Bay

Let's all get naked, in Guantanamo Bay
Lie in the sand; put our tush in a Bush, where the nights are gay
Let's all get cute with the girls in the suits

I can't believe it, that I made it here
I'm a lazy do nothing, no good to no one, without a care
My luck's so fine, who could be so kind, to land me here in a spa so far from grit & grime

I'm getting island fever, I can't handle the truth
I'm getting buggered all day, can't get from the 'Git', I'm so young I'm a youth
Where the akee & rice, & salt fish is nice

I'm dying here, I live in fear
I don't think I've done wrong, I just wrote a song of a place so fair
This ain't what I thought, this ain't what I bought

I must be mad; I know I've just been had
I'm told to go, I no longer know what I knowed, it's sad
I know now I've no home, no home to roam, can you just send me away

To where the sun shines hard on the dogs in the yard
An I'm here to say there's no place in the world like Guantanamo Bay


Comments would be greatly appricated. Thanks
Barry