Origin of 'United We Stand'.

[Jim_B]

It is a cliche now: United We Stand, especially after 9/11. But I have a vague recollection from my early childhood that it just might come from a song. “United we stand, divided we fall” is all I remember from the song.

Does it come from a song? And what is the name of the song, when was it written and what are the full lyrics to the song? Or if it didn’t come from a song, where did this phrase originate?

Thank you all for you help

[Johnny_L.A]

From Wiki:

The phrase has been attributed to Aesop, both directly in his fable The Four Oxen and the Lion[1] and indirectly from The Bundle of Sticks[2].

The first attributed use in modern times is to John Dickinson in his revolutionary war song The Liberty Song. In the song, first published in the Boston Gazette in July 1768, he wrote: “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!”

Patrick Henry used the phrase in his last public speech, given in March 1799, in which he denounced The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Clasping his hands and waving his body back and forth, Henry declaimed, “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” At the end of his oration, Henry fell into the arms of bystanders and was carried almost lifeless into a nearby tavern. Two months afterward he was dead.

[Spoke]

The (painfully hokey) song is United We Stand by Brotherhood of Man (1969).

[Nametag]

The phrase also appears in Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall – the song is “Hey You.” I don’t know if 1979 is your early childhood, though. The last verse:

Hey you, standing in the road
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

[Peter_Morris]

Canned Heat, Let’s Work Together

- YouTube

[gigi]

It was also part of the Hands Across America song, which is the earworm I get when I hear the phrase:

Warning: obnoxious graphics and the song plays :eek:

http://www.teachnet-lab.org/ps101/chornik/wtc/hands.htm

[Xema]

OK, I’m confused - did Patrick Henry get this from Pink Floyd, or from Canned Heat?

[Wendell_Wagner]

No, Patrick Henry was in the Brotherhood of Man. He’s the bearded one. Canned Heat and Pink Floyd stole the line from them, as did the writers of the Hands across America song.