Lyr Add: Yes we can songs

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=107653
4 messages

Lyr Add: Yes we can songs

10 Jan 08 - 07:31 PM (#2233476)
Subject: Lyr Add: YES WE CAN
From: mg

Here you go. I am sure there are others already in the pot. Tune is generic sea shantyish.

YES WE CAN

At the rising of the sun yes we can yes we can
Our work is just begun yes we can yes we can

Three hundred million strong yes we can yes we can
We can't all of us be wrong yes we can yes we can

At the running of the slaves yes we can yes we can
To their freedom or their graves yes we can yes we can

Within the famine ships yes we can yes we can
These words were on their lips yes we can yes we can

The weary pioneers yes we can yes we can
And on the Trail of Tears yes we can yes we can

Hope is just a word yes we can yes we can
But it's the best one we have heard yes we can yes we can

Put your shoulder to the plow yes we can yes we can
There is no stopping now yes we can yes we can

From sea to shining sea yes we can yes we can
The best is yet to be yes we can yes we can

11 Jan 08 - 05:49 AM (#2233742)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yes we can songs
From: Joe Offer

Are you the songwriter, Mary?

-Joe Offer-

11 Jan 08 - 07:37 AM (#2233771)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yes we can songs
From: Richard Bridge

Pointer Sisters - Yes we can-can?

11 Jan 08 - 11:19 AM (#2233913)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yes we can songs
From: PoppaGator

Allen Toussaint does a terrific version of "Yes We Can Can" on the 2005 tribute/fundraiser CD "Our New Orleans: A Benefit for the Gulf Coast," backed by an all-star group of fellow displaced Orleanians. Considered in a new context, it becomes quite an inspiring anthem for civic recovery.

I'm tempted to conclude that Allen wrote the song (as he has so many others), but I'm not sure. I did a quick Google search to find out, but all those stupid lyric sites "credit" the recording artist, not the composer. I found assertions that the song was "by" the Pointer Sisters, "by" Harry Connick Jr., and "by" Assorted Artists (referring to its appearance on "Our New Orleans," where Mr. Toussaint was one of the assorted artists, the one singing and playing "Yes We Can Can").