*No more chant your old rhymes about old Robin Hood
His feats I do little admire
I’ll sing the achievements of General Ludd
Now the hero of Nottingham Shire
Those engines of mischief were sentenced to die
By unanimous vote of the trade
And Ludd who cannot a position defy
Was the grand executioner made
Whether guarded by soldiers along the highway
Or closely secured in a room
He shivers them up by night and by day
And nothing can soften their doom
Shall the whole team of humble no longer oppressed
And shall Ludd sheath his conquering sword
Be his grievance instantly met with redress
Than peace shall be quickly restored
Let the wise and the great lend their aid and advice
Never ere their assistance withdraw
Till full-fashioned work at the old-fashioned price
Is established by custom and law *
Makes me want to go out and smash a loom right now, it does … .
Hmm, best would be hard, but here’s a candidate for worst:
Cool, Cool, Considerate Men from 1776. Here’s an excerpt from the lyrics.
"Come ye cool cool conservative men
The likes of which may never be seen again
We have land, cash in hand
Self-command, future planned
Fortune flies, society survives
In neatly ordered lives with well-endowered wives
We sing hosanna, hosanna
To our breeding and our banner
We are cool
Come ye cool cool considerate set
We’ll dance together to the same minuet
To the right, ever to the right
Never to the left, forever to the right
May our creed be never to exceed
Regulated speed, no matter what the need"
Oh heck, you’re so right about chilling. I mean I know it is intended to be, but I always thought I was just being sort of silly to let it be so, well, scary.
Right, to avoid nightmares, I’ll just go back to singing
Damn, I love that song but the album version isn’t up on YouTube. The YouTube versions are some sort of lame, softened re-mix. The album version kicks ass (as does that whole album, Universal Mother, her very best album, IMO). Beyond the music though, what’s wrong with the song? I think it’s very moving and it gives me goosebump chills every time I hear it. Sigh, the album version, anyway. God, what did they do to ruin that amazing song??
‘Donna Donna’ Joan Baez This became a teme tune for the collapse of communism in Cezechslovakia and the subesquent Velvet Revolution - ots actually much older than that though, and has been used by policital activists, particularly students.
‘Where have all the flowers gone’ This has been done so many times folk forget it was a Pete Seeger composition.
‘Whose side are you on boys?’ another Pete Seeger - actually theres going to be rather a lot of political stuff from Pete - the Billy Bragg version is pretty good.
Also:
The Christians: Hooverville & Forgotten Town
Billy Bragg: There is Power In a Union, Price of Oil, Help Save The Youth of America
Madness: Ghost Train
Tom Paxton has a slew of very good ones, including Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues, Talking Watergate Blues and my all time favorite Born on the Fourth of July.
I mean I know it is intended to be, but I always thought I was just being sort of silly to let it be so, well, scary.
