|
28 Oct 06 - 08:30 AM (#1870677) Subject: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie Song history, anyone? "When our fathers came to this golden land There was nothing but forests, rivers, and sand And a few million indians running around Now look what we made of the little they found There's cities of silver that shine in the night Churches of splendor and halls of delight And only an echo of indian drums Who can deny how far we have come" |
|
28 Oct 06 - 08:37 AM (#1870684) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: kendall How far in the wrong direction... When the white man first invaded this land, the natives had a really primitive society. Not a book to be found in any tee pee, the women did all the work and raised the kids while the men hunted and fished all the time. Can you picture Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse changing a diaper or paying alimony? And we thought we could improve on that? |
|
31 Oct 06 - 06:51 PM (#1873394) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie (refresh) |
|
31 Oct 06 - 07:28 PM (#1873424) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: Q (Frank Staplin) Kill the natives, destroy their cultures, pollute the land and air, and multiply like rabbits. The story of civilization. |
|
31 Oct 06 - 07:35 PM (#1873429) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: GUEST,Richie Hi, Where did you get that set of lyrics? That might help. Since you have such complete lyrics, do you know the title? More info please Richie |
|
01 Nov 06 - 02:35 PM (#1874052) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie complete lyrics, male vocal with guitar HOW FAR WE HAVE COME When our fathers came to this golden land There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand And a few million Indians running around Now look what we've made of the little they found Theyre's cities of silver that shine in the night Churches of splendor and halls of delight And only an echo of Indian drums Who can deny how far we have come The slave ships they came with the whip and the rack And a million black people with scars on their back Picked cotton, drew water, and slept in the cold With a bible for comfort they were happy and cold The laws they were passed, slavery went Our lives integrated at least six percent In the sharecroppers shack and the big city slum Who can deny how far we have come The immigrants came from the green Irish shore From Poland and Russia, ten million and more Germany, Italy, all the world round To settle our ghettos and immigrant towns Their brains and their bodies they put to the wheel To build our great factories and towers of steel To march to our battles and carry our guns Who can deny how far we have come Now all through the Andes, they've heard of our name On the factory wall, in the palace of shame They drink Coca Cola and the times that they spend Goes straight to the pockets of our businessmen To pay for our Fords, and our split level homes Our Hi-Fis and records and six percent loans Our profits protected with dictators guns Who can deny how far we have come In Asia and Africa, they're learning too How free enterprise can do wonders for you South Africas prisons are bursting with men Barbed wire keeps the Vietnamese in Where elections are daydreams that never get far American weapons are there standing guard We're ready to fight for the lands that we run Who can deny how far we have come Our fears they are many though they're seldom saved They're black and they're yellow and they're brown and they're red They see through the legend, they smell the decay They're learning to fight the American way And we in our armchairs are quick to condemn Our bankbooks are falling, our profits might end The breaking of change is our funeral hum Who can deny how far we have come When our fathers came to this golden land There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand And a few million Indians running around Now look what we've made of the little they found Theyre's cities of silver that shine in the night Churches of splendor and halls of delight And only an echo of Indian drums Who can deny how far we have come |
|
01 Nov 06 - 03:36 PM (#1874098) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: McGrath of Harlow Powerful polemic song. Just shows how putting a quote in context can change how people interpret it... The line about South Africa indicates that atv latest it's from before 1990, when Mandela was released and the apartheid system collapsed. But I suspect it'd be from 20 years before then. Any clues? Not Phil Ochs is it? |
|
01 Nov 06 - 03:55 PM (#1874116) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie No, I've been through the Phil Ochs discography, no match to the lyrics I'm guessing its 1970s vintage, came off a reel to reel tape that had no song/artist names. |
|
01 Nov 06 - 04:14 PM (#1874136) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: McGrath of Harlow Not being in Phil Ochs discography doesn't necessarily mean he mightn't have written it, just that he never recorded it. Not that there's any reason to assume it was written by anybody whose name would ring a bell. Plenty of good songs written by people no one has ever heard of. Folk songs in general, for example. Some clever use of language in there - for example the ambiguity of "They're learning to fight the American way". That line "Who can deny how far we have come" sounds like the kind of line a politician would put in a speech. And what sort of tune does it use? |
|
01 Nov 06 - 07:12 PM (#1874266) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie The online Phil Ochs lyrics site is very complete, even for songs he never recorded. I'm hoping someone has heard this before and will recognize the songwriter or singer. My guess, from the reference to "Vietnamese", is the song dates to the Vietnam war era. |
|
02 Nov 06 - 04:12 PM (#1874961) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: McGrath of Harlow That line "Who can deny how far we have come?" does sound like it's a quote, with the song being a comment on whatever context that quote comes from - a speech or an article or a book maybe. Maybe someone is going to drop in who has come across the song. Or who might try singing it. Reading the words, a tune that comes to mind is the one Woody Guthrie used for his "1913 Massacre". |
|
02 Nov 06 - 05:03 PM (#1874992) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: Charley Noble A powerful song but not a clue where it might have come from other than the late 1960's or early 1970's. Charley Noble |
|
02 Nov 06 - 05:16 PM (#1874996) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: Q (Frank Staplin) I looked for a speech or song beginning with or containing "Who can deny how far..." but without result. Intriguing. |
|
02 Nov 06 - 08:52 PM (#1875095) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: GUEST,Richie Hey, Sometimes the only clues that can solve a puzzle come from details associated with the tape. If you can trace (if that's possible) where the tape came from, you might get some clues. Another thing you can do if have the tape made into a CD or MP3 file so that you can let other people hear it. You can put it on a web-site and then attach a link. Because the lyrics to both your songs can't be traced with google search it leads me to believe these are original songs by an unknown artist. Richie |
|
02 Nov 06 - 09:42 PM (#1875109) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: GUEST,M.Ted Not Phil Ochs--doesn't scan like a Phil Ochs song--it scans kind of like "The Night Before Christmas" Other clues for dating it are the term "Hi-Fi",the six percent mortgage, "split-level homes"--all of which were mid sixties sort of things(split levels were the next big thing in about 1958--and we all remember the "Hi-Fi", that unnecessarily large record player/piece of furniture was the perfect showpiece for the split level home)--no one really wrote songs like this til the Vietnam war was in full swing, though-- |
|
03 Nov 06 - 09:15 AM (#1875336) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie Richie, I have mp3 files on CD, but how do I copy them onto a website? |
|
03 Nov 06 - 06:25 PM (#1875683) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: McGrath of Harlow I've found one possible candidate for the line I said reads like a quotation from a speech - "How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light--a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?" From Eisenhower's first inaugural speech, January 1953. That'd be ten years or more before the earliest date this song could have been put together, at least in its present form. And of course it's a phrase that could crop up in any speech or article. |
|
16 Dec 06 - 10:27 PM (#1911447) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie Refresh. |
|
17 Dec 06 - 09:43 PM (#1912281) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: Charley Noble No sign of this song in the initial years of Broadside Magazine, No. 1 through 25, 1962-1963. Charley Noble |
|
02 Feb 07 - 06:13 PM (#1956052) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: oldhippie This mystery has been solved. The writer/singer was "Bill Frederick", recorded on LP "Hey, Hey, LBJ" in 1967. I heard from the artist, now singing under his real name, Fred Stanton. |
|
02 Feb 07 - 06:16 PM (#1956055) Subject: RE: Origins: How Far We Have Come From: McGrath of Harlow Thanks for posting that - I like a mystery being solved. Of course, that still leaves the mystery of the quote which appears to lie behind the song. Maybe Fred Stanton could solve it? (Or reveal there isn't any such quote, if such be the case.) |