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08 Aug 09 - 07:30 PM (#2696115) Subject: Lyr Add: EISENHOWER BLUES (J. B. Lenoir) From: Peace Eisenhower Blues J B recorded this song in 1954 for the small Parrot label; it was later reissued on Chess. My source is a ROOTS CD sampler. EISENHOWER BLUES (J. B. Lenoir) Hey everybody, I was talkin' to you I ain't tellin' you jivin', this is the natural truth Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do? My money's gone, my fun is gone The way things look, how can I be here long? Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do? Taken all my money, to pay the tax I'm only givin' you people, the natural facts I only tellin' you people, my belief Because I am headed straight, on relief Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do? Ain't go a dime, ain't even got a cent I don't even have no money, to pay my rent My baby needs some clothes, she needs some shoes Peoples I don't know what, I'm gonna do Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do? From Blues Lyrics On Line: J. B. LENOIR |
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08 Aug 09 - 10:36 PM (#2696178) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Blues From: Charley Noble Peace- My favorite from this period was a little ditty entitled "I Like Ike", recorded by John Greenberg I believe. The first verse ran: I like Ike, Love that smile, Makes me feel so good! The song radiated with sarcasm. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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09 Aug 09 - 09:29 PM (#2696661) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Joe_F The President's playing golf Out at Burning Tree. It warms the cockles of my heart To know he's thinking about me. And there he stands -- Putts. I've got those ever-lovin' Right-to-suffer blues. -- From "The Right to Suffer Blues", in _The Bosses Songbook_ (1958) The title alludes to a remark by Charles E. Wilson (I forget *which* Charles E. Wilson, and what he was secretary of) that "The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free society". |
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09 Aug 09 - 10:32 PM (#2696685) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: oldhippie The "I Like Ike" song was words and music by Irving Berlin ASCAP per liner notes from "Presidential Campaign Songs" Oscar Brand CD. |
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09 Aug 09 - 11:49 PM (#2696697) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Thomas Stern for those interested in blues of political observation, there are 3 books by Guido Van Rijn, each with a separately available CD: ROOSEVELT'S BLUES-African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR 1997, University Press of Mississippi CD: Agram ABCD 2017 TRUMAN AND EISENHOWER BLUES -..1945-1960 2004, Continuum CD: Agram ABCD 2018 KENNEDY's BLUES ...on JFK 2007, University Press of Mississippi CD: Agram ABCD 2019 Best wishes, Thomas. |
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10 Aug 09 - 12:55 AM (#2696714) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: GUEST,GUEST RE: My source is a ROOTS CD sampler. DATE? TRACK? Liner notes? Peace - you KNOW better ! Geocities is like dust in the wind. |
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10 Aug 09 - 11:32 AM (#2697001) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Maybe because I was there when he was President, he looks a hell of a lot better in retrospect than some folks like to admit. Among other things, he was the President who warned of the rise of the "military-industrial complex." For those who thought him a "do-nothing," I'd prefer that to the "do-somethings" who have brought us into two major wars and several minor ones since his administration. "Ike" reflected the times. Conformism, bland innocence and avoidance of conflict were hallmarks of the period. People who had endured WWII and Korea and for whom the "cold war" was very real, wanted to feel secure. The sixties began to shock people out of it. I never quite understood blaming the man in the White House for all that. It is also the period when a lot of us older types began to hang out in our local coffee houses to learn and practice the craft of folk singing. If Eisenhower's era gave rise to that, I'm OK with it. |
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10 Aug 09 - 12:16 PM (#2697015) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Uncle_DaveO Joe F., I think the Charles Wilson you refer to would have been the former president of General Motors, appointed Secretary of State, I think. He that proclaimed, "What's good for General Motors is good for the United States!" Dave Oesterreich |
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10 Aug 09 - 07:56 PM (#2697339) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Ike's own favorite song was given out to be that durable soldiers' fave, "Old Soldiers Never Die (They Just Fade Away)," based in turn on Krazy Kat's old favorite hymn for banjo, "There Is a Happy Land." That Ike favorite is presumably the first DT version, given below. (As to the DT's second version, a gung-ho Gene Autry confection regarding Bataan, Corregidor, Iwo and other landmarks of WWII, that's not to my point here.) My question is this. I've always gotten the impression that the earlier, traditional "Old Soldiers Never Die" is but a fragment of a much longer song with verses created in the ranks that either haven't survived, or at least have never been reported. Does anyone know any further verses to it beyond the basic two cited in DT version #1 (and its Spanish Civil War precursor) as given below? OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE There is an old cookhouse, far far away Where we get pork and beans, three times a day. Beefsteak we never see, damn-all sugar for our tea And we are gradually fading away. cho: Old soldiers never die, Never die, never die, Old soldiers never die They just fade away. Privates they love their beer, 'most every day. Corporals, they love their stripes, that's what they say. Sergeants they love to drill. Guess them bastards always will So we drill and drill until we fade away. The earliest variant I've heard is the Spanish Civil War one sung by Seeger, Guthrie et al from which the closely similar version above derives: There is a sweet cookhouse not far away Where we get sweet damn all three times a day, Ham and eggs we never see, damn all sugar for our tea, And we are gradually fading away. |
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10 Aug 09 - 08:04 PM (#2697346) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Barbara Alas, when Eisenhower ran for President I was in elementary school in a good solid Republican suburb of Detroit, and the only Eisenhower song I can recall went:
Stevenson's a jerk Eisenhower has the power Whistle while you work. Blessings, Barbara, whose politics have changed since then... |
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10 Aug 09 - 08:07 PM (#2697350) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Peace "RE: My source is a ROOTS CD sampler. DATE? TRACK? Liner notes? Peace - you KNOW better ! Geocities is like dust in the wind." Yeah. Sorry. |
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10 Aug 09 - 08:41 PM (#2697370) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: Joe_F I should have looked it up. There were (as I remembered) two Charles E. Wilsons in Eisenhower's administration: Charles Erwin Wilson ("Engine Charlie" of GM), Secretary of Defense, and Charles Edward Wilson ("Electric Charlie" of GE), head of the Office of Defense Mobilization. The former is the one who said "What was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa", widely & maliciously (but not altogether unfairly IMO) shortened to the "vice versa" part. Neither, however, said "The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free economy"; that was one Howard Pyle, an aide of Eisenhower's, in order to buck up the unemployed in Detroit. |
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11 Aug 09 - 08:31 AM (#2697634) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: clueless don Just for completeness: There was a duo called The Pheromones (they were probably best known for a song called "Yuppiedrone".) I suppose one would describe their genre as "political humor". One of their songs, as I recall, was titled "Eisenhower, Man of the Hour". Don |
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11 Aug 09 - 05:24 PM (#2697957) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: NormanD "Eisenhower Blues" was also recorded in the mid-80s by Elvis Costello on "King Of America". OK, but nowhere as good as JB Lenoir. Probably intended as a comment on Bush I. |
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12 Aug 09 - 04:44 PM (#2698821) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eisenhower Songs From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Oddly, it was not Ike, but MacArthur who, after being "sacked" by Truman during the Korean War, made his rather maudlin farewell address to Congress and used the phrase "Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away." |