This Land is Your Land

This Land is Your Land Album

This Land is Your Land Recording (Full)

This Land is Your Land: Songs of Social Justice

Recorded for the International Union, UAW. Produced in October, 1964, featuring:

The Tarriers
Billie Holiday
Roonnie Gilbert
Baytown Singers
Ian and Sylvia
Leon Bib
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tommy Makem
Clancy Brothers
The Weavers
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Josh White
Fred Hellerman
Odetta
Cisco Houston
Pete Seeger
Joan Baez
Judy Collins
Ray Keane
Harry Fleischman

Side One

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Sung by the Tarriers and Ronnie Gilbert

1. As I was walking that ribbon of highway

I saw above me that endless skyway,

l saw below me that golden valley,

This land was made for you and me.

CHORUS: This land is your land, this land is my land,

From California to the New York island,

From the redwood forest co the gulf stream waters,

This land was made for you and me.

2. The sun was shining as I was strolling,

Through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,

As the fog was lifting a voice was singing,

This land was made for you and me.

3. I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps,

To the sparkling sands of her diar.10nd deserts,

While all around me a voice was chancing,

This land was made for you and me.

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

Copyright I 956 and I 958 Ludlow Music. Inc

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission

The title song of this album was chosen as a tribute to Woody Guthrie, the greatest of the modern balladeers. He has had a life of almost continuous hardship. The family home in Oklahoma burned down, his father lost "a farm a day for thirty days" in the collapse of a land boom, his sister Clara burned to death in an oil-stove explosion and his mother became violently insane. Woody went inro his teens a virtual orphan, working as a shoeshine boy, spittoon cleaner and bus boy. At sixteen he took to the road, singing and playing his harmonica for nickels when work was scarce. His uncle Jeff taught him to play a guitar. After barnstorming in the South for several years, he married and "lived in the ricketiest of the oil town shacks long enough to have no cloches, no money, no groceries, and two children."

Woody travelled around, singing for migratory workers and occasionally on radio, writing songs vibrant with anger against the injustice under which poor workers and farmers suffered.

Although he wrote more than a thousand songs, he rarely made money on them, neglecting to copyright the songs. More than 150 of his compositions have been protest songs, but he also wrote many about love, humor, crime, war and even nursery songs. A few years ago, he fell ill of Huntington's Chorea and is no longer able to continue creative work, but folksingers throughout the land still call his name blessed, and gratefully acknowledge their debt to him.

"This Land Is Your Land" was written on one of Woody's happier days and cells of his pride in bountiful, beautiful America and his determination chat all men share in its abundance, beauty and wonders.

2. THE BALLAD OF MOMMA ROSA PARKS

Sung by the Baytown Singers

INTRO: Between wars, civil wars that is, everybody just kinda sat around and talked about the way they were treating each other. Nobody really doing nothing about it. Till one day a little old lady took a seat in the front of it bus. The bus driver told her to move to the back, the reason being the color of her skin or something like that. Well old Momma Parks didn't move, but the whole world did. When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world stood up. She started a revolution, folks, a march on Washington, and a lot bigger march all around the world. God bless Momma Parks.

1. In nineteen hundred and fifty-live in a southern American town,

A tired colored lady got on a city bus and immediately sat down.

With a closed mind and an open mouth the big bus driver

got rough,

And cold his only passenger co move to the back of the bus.

CHORUS: When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world

stood up.

What's good for one is good for all, is good for all of us.

When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world

stood up.

2. The lady’s name is Momma Rosa Parks, a hard-working

woman indeed.

She was goin' home to her golden times, she had little hungry

mouths to feed.

She wasn't botherin' nobody and <loin' nothin' wrong.

By the Lord's rules of love,

When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world stood up.

CHORUS: When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world

stood up.

What's good for one is good for all, is good for all of us.

He told his only passenger to move to the back of the bus.

When Momma Parks sac down, the whole world

stood up.

What's good for one is good for all, is good for all of us.

When Momma Parks sat down, the whole world

stood up.

We shall not be moved.

Words and Music by Nick Vener and Buddy Mize

Used By Permission

Unart Music Corporation

On December 1st, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, a quiet, hard-working seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, boarded a bus for home. Weary after a day's work and carrying a load of groceries, she sat in the first available seat-which happened to be in the front of the bus. The driver stopped the bus and ordered her to move to the rear-the segregated Negro section. When Mrs. Parks refused, the driver called the police, who arrested her. Then, when Montgomery's 50,000 Negroes refused to ride the buses, 90 of them-including Mrs. Parks-were arrested for conspiracy. Mrs. Parks now has a unique distinction. She has been arrested both for riding a bus and for refusing to ride a bus.

But the arrests failed to daunt either Mrs. Parks or the other Montgomery Negroes. The astonished white community soon found that Mrs. Parks had sparked a revolution. The bus boycott, led by a Pullman porter trade unionise, E. D. Nixon; and a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.; lasted more than a year and brought the bus company to its knees. As Dr. King phrased it, the Negroes of Montgomery traded "tired hearts for tired feet." They walked in Montgomery, rode Freedom Buses in Mississippi, sac-in in Birmingham, and marched in Washington.

And on that great day of August 28th, 1963, when over 200,000 black and white Americans marched together for Jobs and Freedom, on the speakers' platform was Mrs. Rosa Parks, a weary colored lady who sat down-and made the whole world stand up in admiration. Inspired by her courage, Nick Vener and Buddy Mize wrote "The Ballad of Momma Rosa Parks." This rendition, by the new and spirited Baytown Singers, is its first recording.

3. FOUR STRONG WINDS

Sung by Ian and Sylvia

CHORUS: Four strong winds chat blow lonely, seven seas that

run high,

All those things that don't change, come what may.

Bue our good times are all gone and I'm bound for

movin' on,

I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.

1 . Think I'll go out co Alberta, weather’s good there in the Fall,

I got some friends that I can go to workin' for .

Still I wish you'd change your mind if I ask you one more time,

But we've been through this a hundred times or more.

2. If I get there before the snow flies and if things are going good,

You could meet me if I send you down the fare.

But by then it would be winter, there ain't too much for you to do,

And those winds sure can blow cold way out there.

Words and Music by Ian Tyson

Used By Permission

Through the years, the plight of poor farm and migrant workers has been a running theme in folksongs of protest. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" was the rallying song of Wat Tyler's peasant rebels when they marched on London in 1381. In this century, Joe Hill, Josh White and Woody Guthrie have been among the foremost of those whose songs of anguish, travail and defiance have spotlighted their fight for a better life.

But militant protest is not the only way to move people. "Four Strong Winds," written by Canadian-born Ian Tyson, is a tender, plaintive love song about Canadian migrant workers forced to part by the need to move from tobacco fields in Ontario to wheat harvest on the prairie and apple picking across the continent in British Columbia.

4. ANOTHER MAN DONE GONE

Sung by Leon Bibb

l. Another man done gone, another man done gone,

From the county farm, another man done gone.

2. He had a long chain on, he had a long chain on,

He had a long chain on, he had a long chain on

3. I didn't know his name, I didn't know his name,

I didn't know his name, I didn't know his name.

4. They hunted him with hounds, they hunted him with hounds,

They hunted him with hounds, they hunted him with hounds.

5. They killed another man, they killed another man,

They killed another man, they killed another man.

6. Another man done gone, another man done gone,

From the county farm, another man done gone.

This Southern field cry is thought to be one of the origins of the blues. le was sung by convicts on the chain gang. If the obvious meaning is death, another meaning is escape. The twin meanings here, carried out in the beautiful melody, express not only sorrow for cruel punishment but veiled hope for a free future.

5. SIXTEEN TONS

Sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford

I. Some people say a man is made out of mud,

A poor man is made out of muscle and blood,

Muscle and blood and skin and bones,

A mind that's weak and a back that's strong.

CHORUS: You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter, don’t you call me 'cause I can’t go.

I owe my soul to the company store.

2. I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine,

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine,

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal,

And the straw boss said "Well-a bless my soul."

3. 1 was born one mornin' it was drizzling rain,

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name.

I was raised in a cane-brake by an ole mama lion,

Can't no high-toned woman make me walk the line.

4. If you see me comin’· better step aside,

A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died.

One fist of iron, the other of steel,

If the right one don't a get you, then the left one will.

Words and Music by Merle Travis

Hollywood, California Used By Special Permission

Merle Travis never worked in the mines, but his father was a hard-working coal-miner of Beech Creek, Kentucky. Years after he achieved fame in Hollywood as a singer and composer, he recalled vividly the hardships under which coal miners and their families lived.

"I have known the fruits of strikes," he wrote in the United Millworkers' Journal. "The bitter and the sweet. Hunger and music .... Who deserves more credit than the wife of a coal miner? Mother was one. She never complained about the hardships that were hers in abundance. Lighting the coal-oil lamp long before daylight, and cooking breakfast for her children and husband. Taylor, my oldest brother, would come home and get 'washed up.' How well I remember the galvanized tub set in the middle of the floor-the big black pot of water poured in-the steam-and then enough cold water to make it just right. When I'd watch him wash the black coal dust from a little rose tattoo on his arm I longed for the day when I could work in the mine and have a tattoo ... He practically broke every rib in his body in a mine accident and it changed his whole life."

When Travis wrote "Sixteen Tons," he took the key line, "I owe my soul to the company store," from his father's favorite expression. "My Dad never saw real money," said Travis. "lie was constantly in debt to the coal company. When shopping was needed, Dad would go to a window and draw little brass tokens against his account. They could only be spent at the grocery store owned by the company. He used to say: "I can't afford to die. I owe my soul to the company store.' "

This recording by Tennessee Ernie Ford sold a million records faster than any previous recording, and it led the Hit Parade for many months, but many youngsters swayed by its driving beat had no idea of what a "company store" was.

6. JOHNNY, I HARDLY KNEW YA

Sung by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers

l. I'm on the road to sweet Athy, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

l"m on the road to sweet Athy, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

I'm on the road to sweet Athy, a stick in me hand and a drop

in me eye,

And a doleful damsel I heard cry. Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

CHORUS: With your guns and drums and drums and guns,

hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Your guns and drums and drums and guns,

hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

With your guns and drums and drums and guns,

the enemy nearly slew ye,

Ah, darlin' dear, you looked so queer, Johnny,

I hardly knew ya.

2. Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Where arc the eyes that looked so mild when my poor heart

you first beguiled?

Why did ye skedaddle from me and the child) Johnny,

I hardly knew ya.

3. Where are the legs with which ye run, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Where are the legs with which ye run, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Where are the legs with which ye run when first ye went

co carry a gun?

Indeed your dancing days are done, Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

4. Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, you're an eyeless, boneless,

chickenless egg.

You'll have to be put with a bowl co beg, Johnny,

I hardly knew ya.

5. I'm happy for co see you home, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

I'm happy for co see you home, hoo-roo, hoo-roo,

I'm happy for co see you home all from the island of Ceylon,

So low in the flesh, so high in the bone, Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

Throughout the ages, men have gone off to war singing paeans in praise of heroism, patriotism and glory. Then they have returned, broken in body, mind and spirit, and the songs become harsh laments and impassioned pleas for "No More War." "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya" dates back to the 18th century when, impelled by famine, many Irishmen joined the British army and fought all around the globe. It speaks of a young Irish lad who went to the wars and returned a shell of a man. Johnny Makem and the Clancy Brothers sing it with a hair-raising bitterness. Ironically, the song later became transformed into "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," one of the songs used to cheer on Northern soldiers during our Civil War.

7. DRILL, YE TARRIERS, DRILL

Sung by the Weavers

l. Now ev'ry morning at seven o'clock,

There's twenty tarriers aworking at the rock,

And the boss comes along and he says, "Keep still

And come down heavy on the case-iron drill!"

CHORUS: And drill, ye carriers, drill! And drill, ye carriers, drill!

For it's work all day for the sugar in your cay,

Down behind the railway,

And drill, ye carriers, drill! And blast! And fire!

2. Now the boss was a fine man down co the ground,

And he married a lady six feet 'round;

She baked good bread and she baked it well,

But she baked it hard as the holes in Hell!

3. Well now our new foreman was Jean McCann,

By God, he was a blamed mean man!

Last week a premature blast went off,

And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff.

4. Well the next time pay day came around,

Jim Goff a dollar shore was found.

When asked what for, came chis reply,

"You wuz docked for the time you wuz up in che sky!"

From the days of the 1845 potato famines, Irishmen by the hundreds of thousands fled to America to escape starvation. Once here, they became part of the vast army working to build America's railroads together with Negro, Chinese, Italian and East European workers. In the l870's and 1880's, the Irish dynamiters, or tarriers, blasted and tunneled their way through mountains as ribbons of rail crisscrossed the continent. "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" apparently was written by Thomas F. Casey, a New Yorker who had once worked on a blasting gang. Being "docked for the time he was up in the sky" appears slightly exaggerated but is permissible poetic license, since it did approximate working conditions in America's industries before unions won a strong foothold. The song is full of satiric humor and redolent of the life of the boarding houses and work camps along the railroad sites.

8. STRANGE FRUIT

Sung by Billie Holiday

1. Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

2. Pastoral scenes of the gallant South,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

3. Here is a fruit for the crows co pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind co suck,

For the sun co roe, for the tree to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Words and Music by Lewis Allen

Reprinted by permission of the Edward B. Marks Music Corp.

Since the Civil War ended and the slaves were freed, the former slaveholders used the Ku Klux Klan and ocher degenerate elements to lynch thousands of Negroes. During the decade from 1890 to 1900, for instance, 1,217 mob murders by hanging, burning, shooting or beating were recorded. A famous Negro author, Ida B. Wells, eloquently documented the fact that lynching was a form of intimidation of the mass of Negroes to preserve the South's plantation economy and the white ballot box.

"Strange Fruit" was written by Lewis Allen and adapted in 1938 as a song for Billie Holiday. It later became the title of a strong and bitter novel by Lillian Smith.

9. OH, FREEDOM

Sung by Ronnie Gilbert

1. Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me,

And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave

And go home co my Lord and be free.

2. No more moanin', no more moanin', no more moanin' over me,

And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave

And go home to my Lord and be free.

3. They'll be singin', they'll be singin', they'll be singin' over me,

And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave

And go home to my Lord and be free.

Almost all the major American poets of the early and middle 1800's were either abolitionists or sympathetic to the cause of freedom. James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Cullen Bryant, Walt Whitman and John Greenleaf Whitter were among those who wrote innumerable poems against slavery. Many were victims of printed, verbal and even physical attacks. But powerful as their songs were, they were often outstripped by the simple spirituals arising from the slaves' own longing for freedom.

Negro slaves were by no means submissive under the intolerable conditions of slavery. In Gloucester County, Virginia, as early as 1663 slaves joined with white indentured servants to plan a rebellion. The plot was nipped and the heads of the black ringleaders impaled in the public square. Nevertheless there were more than a hundred slave revolts during the 18^th and 19th centuries.

One song, testifying to the Negroes' strong love of liberty, is·oh Freedom," which later became the marching song of Negro regiments in the Civil War. Its stirring message makes it a moving plea for the freedom of oppressed people everywhere.

Side Two

1. HE WAS A FRIEND OF MINE

Sung by the Baytown Singers

l. He was a friend of mine,

He was a friend of mine,

He died for his country long before his time,

He was a friend of mine.

2. He was a man among men,

He was a man among men,

He cried to help his people and each man was his friend,

He was a man among men.

3. He believed in God,

He believed in God,

He loved us all as equals in the eyes of God,

He believed in God.

4. I heard the news and cried,

I heard the news and cried,

I felt the earth grow colder when our great friend died,

I heard the news and cried.

5. He was a friend of mine,

He was a man among men,

He believed in God,

I heard the news and cried.

Words and Music by Randy Steirling and Ken Liveley

"He Was a Friend of Mine" was written just after the Civil War about a young Union soldier killed in action. Today, almost a hundred years later, the song has a new meaning for the nation after the tragic assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, thirty-fifth President of the United States. This tribute to his beloved memory by the Baytown Singers is shared by the members of the International Union UAW and all lovers of freedom everywhere.

2. BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

Sung by Peter, Paul and Mary

1. How many roads must a man walk down

before you call him a man?

Yes, 'n' How many seas must a white dove sail

before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, 'n' How many times must the cannon balls fly

before they' re forever banned?

CHORUS: The answer, my friend, is blowin'·in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

2. How many years can a mountain exist before it's washed

to the sea?

Yes, 'n' How many years can some people exist

before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, 'n' How many times can a man turn his head

pretending he just doesn't see?

3. How many times muse a man look up before he can see the sky?

Yes, 'n' How many ears must one man have

before he can hear people cry?

Yes, 'n' How many deaths will it take 'till he knows that

too many people have died?

Words and Music by Bob Dylan

Used By Permission

Bob Dylan, a faithful devotee of Woody Guthrie, is one of the great contemporary folk song writers at the age of 23. Dylan ran away from home in Hibbing, Minnesota when he was ten years old, taking along his guitar and harmonica. Since then he has lived in New Mexico, South Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota and New York-always seeking the authentic sounds and views of ordinary people. In "Blowin' in the Wind," a leader in the top ten songs of 1963, Bob Dylan strikes out hard against both war and racial injustice.

In 1962, Dylan said of the song's background: •·some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars ... You people over 21 should know better." All he adds by way of commentary to the song now is: "The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind."

3. FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD

Sung by the Weavers

CHORUS: Follow, follow, follow,

Follow the drinking gourd,

For the old man is a-waiting' for to carry you to freedom,

Follow the drinking gourd.

l. Now when the sun comes back and the first quail calls,

Follow the drinking gourd.

The old man is a-waiting' for to carry you to freedom,

Follow the drinking gourd.

2. Now the river bank'll make a mighty good road,

The dead trees will show you the way.

Left foot, peg foot, travelin' on,

Follow the drinking gourd.

3. Now the river ends between two hills,

Follow the drinking gourd.

There's another river on the other side,

Follow the drinking gourd.

Words and Music by Paul Campbell

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission

In the decade preceding the Civil War, it is estimated some 75,000 slaves escaped to freedom. Flight, of course, could not be mentioned openly, for fear of heavy punishment. But overseers were so used to slaves singing that they paid little attention to the words. An old gospel hymn, "Follow the Risen lord," was transformed by the slaves into a guide for escape. They sang "Follow the Drinking Gourd," meaning the Big Dipper, which to them resembled a giant drinking gourd in the sky and pointed northward to freedom. The old man with a peg leg mentioned in the song was one of the thousands of white and black "conductors" on the "Underground Railroad" helping his "passengers" make the jump into Canada and freedom.

4. HARD TIME BLUES

Sung by Josh White

INTRO: This is a true song written in 1941 when I went to visit by mother in Greenville, South Carolina. I saw children with their bellies poking out. I wondered what was happening. When I arrived home I found out. It was the sharecroppers' blues. My definition of sharecroppers is this-sharecroppers are people that are poor in the necessities of life and they're stinkin' rich on hard times. You might hear them singing a song like this called the "Hard Time Blues."

l. Well I went down home 'bout a year ago,

Things so bad, Lord, my heart was sore.

Folk had nothin'-it was a sin and a shame,

Everybody said hard times was to blame.

CHORUS: Great God Almighty, folks a-feelin' bad,

Lose everything they ever had.

Great God Almighty, folks a-feelin' bad,

Lose everything they ever had.

2. Now the sun was a-shinin' fourteen days and no rain,

Hoein' and plantin' was all in vain.

They had hard, hard times, Lord, all around,

Meal barrels empty, crops burned to the ground.

3. They had skinny-lookin' children, bellies pokin' out,

That old pellagra without a doubt.

Old folks hangin' round the cabin door

Ain't seen times this hard before.

4. Well, I went to the boss at the commissary score,

Folks all starving, please don't close your door.

We want more food and a little more time to pay.

Boss man laughed and walked away.

5. Now your landlord comes around when your rent is due.

And if you ain't got his money, take your home from you.

He'll take your mule and horse, even take your cow,

Says, "Get off my land, you're no-good, no-how! "

Music by Josh White, Lyrics by William Waring Cuney

© Copyright 195 7 Charles Street Publishing Co.

The end of the Civil War brought into existence sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Plantation owners, impoverished by the war and with their slaves freed, sought frantically to hold on to their land. The main method was to rent it to poor whites and freed slaves, either for specified sums or on shares of the crop when it was harvested. The planter would furnish seed, food and clothing to the cropper and cake out his share when he sold the cotton. Planters learned that they could force their sharecroppers to stay on the land by making chem pay higher 'prices at the plantation store and by using a "crooked pencil" to keep chem in debt. Now that farm mechanization is widespread, both white and black sharecroppers are being driven off the land into unemployment in the cities. In hard times, both Negro and white sharecroppers subsisted on meal, molasses and fatback, a pellagra-producing diet.

5. COME AWAY MELINDA

Sung by Fred Hellerman

1. Mommy, mommy, come and look and see what I have found,

A little way away from here while digging in the ground.

CHORUS: Come away Melinda, come in and close the door,

It's nothing but a picture book they had before the war.

2. Mommy, mommy, come and see, oh mommy, come and look,

There's four or five Melinda girls inside this picture book.

CHORUS: Come away Melinda, come in and close the door,

There were lots of little girls like you

before they had the war.

3. Mommy, mommy, come and see, oh mommy, hurry do.

There's someone grown up very tall who doesn't look like you.

CHORUS: Come away Melinda, come in and close the door,

Your father was a man like that before they had the war.

4. Mommy, mommy, come and see, such things I've never seen.

There's happy faces all around and all the ground is green.

CHORUS: Come away Melinda, come in and close the door,

That's just the way it used to be before they had the war.

5. Mommy, mommy, come and see and tell me if you can,

Why can't it be the way it was before the war began?

CHORUS: Come away Melinda, come in and close the door.

The answer lies in yesterday before they had the war.

Words and Music by Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff

200 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y.

On a concrete wall across from the United Nations is an inscription relating to the time when men "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." The simple, haunting melody and lyrics of "Come Away Melinda" appeal to man's desire to love and survive. So powerful is its emotional pull that it may lead many to strive to bring that kind of world into being now,

6. IF I HAD A HAMMER

Sung by Odetta

1. If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning,

I'd hammer in the evening all over this land.

I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning,

I'd hammer out love between all of my brothers,

All over this land.

2. If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning,

I'd ring it in the evening all over this land.

I'd ring out danger, I'd ring out warning,

I'd ring out love between all my brothers, all over this land.

3. If I had a song, I'd sing it in the morning,

I'd sing it in the evening all over this land.

I'd sing out danger, I'd sing out warning,

I'd sing out love between all my brothers all over this land.

4. Well, I got a hammer and I got a bell

And I got a song to sing all over this land.

It's the hammer of justice, it's the bell of freedom,

And my song's about love between all my brothers,

all over this land.

Words and Music by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission

Centuries ago the Prophet Isaiah spoke out: "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest Until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, And the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Upon thy walls, 0 Jerusalem have I set watchmen Who shall never hold their peace, day and night." The way of the watchmen is no easier today than in ancient times, but men are still willing to assume that role and fight for righteousness. The tremendous reception given the modern folk song, "If I Had a Hammer," which so eloquently paraphrases the ancient prophet, demonstrates that the old sayings fit the mood and needs of our times.

7. PASTURES OF PLENTY

Sung by Cisco Houston

1. It's a mighty hard road that my poor hands have hoed,

My poor feet have traveled one hot dusty road.

Out of your dustbowl and westward we rolled

And your deserts was hoc and your mountains was cold.

2. I have worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes,

I've slept on the ground in the light of your moon.

On the edge of your city you will see us and then,

We come with the dust and we go with the wind.

3. California, Arizona, we make all your crop,

Then it's up north co Oregon to gather your hop,

Dig the beets from your ground, pick the grape from your vine,

To place on your cable your light sparklin' wine.

4. Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground,

From the Grand Coulee Dam where the water runs down.

Ev'ry state in this union us migrants have been,

And we'll work in this fight and we'll light 'til we win.

5. Well, it's always we ramble, chis river and I,

All along your green valley I'll work 'til I die.

My land I'll defend with my life, need it be,

For my pastures of plenty must always be free,

Yes my pastures of plenty must always be free.

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission

Woody Guthrie's sympathy for the migrant worker is strongly evident in "Pastures of Plenty," one of his most effective ballads of protest. His songs, wriccen with unbelievable speed wherever he happened to be and found something worth writing about, might deal with somber subjects but he was never negative. His people always fought back, determined to win the better world he wanted for all. He travelled up and down California in the late '30s with Cisco Houston, putting on shows of skits and songs for migratory workers, making the trips in Woody's 1927 Chevrolet, whose four wheels all went in different directions.

8. LITTLE BOXES

Sung by Pete Seeger

1. Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky,

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same.

There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one

and a yellow one,

And they're all made out of ticky tacky,

And they all look just the same.

2. And the people in the houses all went co the University,

Where they all were put in boxes, little boxes all the same,

And there's doctors, and there's lawyers and business executives,

And they' re all made out of ticky tacky and they all

look just the same.

3. And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry,

And they all have pretty children and the children go to school,

And the children go to summer camp and then to the university,

Where they all gee put in boxes and they all come out the same.

4. And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family,

And they all get put in boxes, little boxes all the same,

There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one

and a yellow one,

And they're all made out of ticky tacky, and they all

look just the same.

Words and Music by Malvina Reynolds

A gay protest against the grim conformity which prevails in our suburbs. our schools, our professions and our games has made "Little Boxes" an unexpected hit on the nation's airwaves. The seeming simplicity and apparent naivete of both music and words add to its light charm and deep meaning. A Boston city planner, fuming for years over suburban boxlike housing developments, ordered his daughter to get the song and learn to sing it. It became an instant success as young performers throughout the land added it to their repertoires. Malvina Reynolds, a Californian, has written countless topical songs over the years but says, "this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to a song of mine."

9. WE SHALL OVERCOME

Sung by Joan Baez

1. We shall overcome, we shall overcome,

We shall overcome some day.

Oh, oh, deep in my heart I do believe

That we shall overcome some day.

2. We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand,

We'll walk hand in hand some day.

Oh, oh, deep in my heart I do believe

That we shall overcome some day.

3. We are not afraid, we are not afraid,

We are not afraid today.

Oh, oh, deep in my heart I do believe

That we shall overcome some day.

4. We shall overcome, we shall overcome,

We shall overcome some day.

Oh, oh, deep in my heart I do believe

That we shall overcome some day.

New Words and Music arr. by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton,

Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission

Royalties derived from this song are being contributed to the Freedom Movement under the trusteeship of the writers. Millions of Americans will never forget the thrilling sight of over 200,000 whites and blacks at the March on Washington, their arms linked and their hands clasped, swaying in rhythm to the moving anthem of the civil rights movement, "We Shall Overcome." Before becoming the "Marseillaise" of freedom fighters, "We Shall Overcome" was originally a Baptist hymn, published in 1901. le was adopted first by Southern trade unionises, in whom the combination of the Bible Belt's hymn-singing tradition and the influence of the Negro spiritual created a ripe climate for union songs. The song went on co become one of the most popular labor songs in history, sung on hundreds of picket lines in the North and South by white and black unionises. When the civil rights movement borrowed it; "will" became "shall" and today it invariably closes mass meetings, prayer vigils and protest marches. "The tone of our 'We Shall Overcome' is quite different from the way it was in union days," asserts Reginald Robinson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. "We put more soul into it, a sort of rocking quality to stir one's inner feeling. When you get through singing it, you could walk over a bed of hot coals, and you wouldn't even feel it!"

10. PASS IT ON

Sung by Judy Collins

1. Freedom doesn't come like a bird on the wing,

Doesn't come down like summer rain,

Freedom, freedom is a hard-won thing,

You've got to work for it,

Fight for it,

Day and night for it,

And every generation's got to win it again.

2. Pass icon co your children, mother,

Pass it on co your children, brother,

They've got co work for it,

Fight for it,

Day and night for it,

Pass it on co your children,

Pass it on!

Music by George Kleinsinger, Lyrics by Millard Lampell

Judy Collins appears through the courtesy of Electra Records "Pass It On" is the theme song of "The Inheritance," the exciting 50th anniversary film produced and directed by Harold Mayer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. "Freedom, freedom is a hard-won thing." These few words sum up the purpose of this entire album, as this song, "Pass It On," with its insistence that each of us must strive persistently for freedom, gives all Americans our marching orders for a better future.

Produced by

Joel O'Brien Productions Inc. and the UAW Education Department Commentary by Harry Fleischman, director National Labor Service, American Jewish Committee

Cover illustration by Ray Keane

Copies of this album available from the

UAW Education Department

8000 East Jefferson Avenue

Detroit 14, Michigan

Also available-Songs for a Better Tomorrow,

an album of labor songs produced by UAW

Printed in U.S.A. Oct. 1964

Prev Next