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Sorry to be so late, I was working in a…

Land Down Under
by Men At Work

Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?"
And he said,

"Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Inspired by the travel forum, here is a song that I remember and love:

Artist: Etta James
Song: Prisoner Of Love
Album: These Foolish Things-Classic


Along from night to night
You'll find me
To weak to break the chains
That bind me
I need no shackles
To remind me
That I'm just a prisoner of Love
For one command
I stand and wait now
From one who's master
Of my fate now
I can't escape
For it's too late now
That I'm just a prisoner of love

What's so good of my caring
When someone is sharing
These arms, with me
Although he has another
I can't have another
For I'm...,I'm not free

He's in my dreams
awake or sleeping, ummm
Upon my knees
To him I'm creeping, oh yeah,yeah...
My very soul is in his keeping

I'm....just a prisoner....of love

Yes, Try. I rang and missed your Men at Work song. Caught up in F. Scott, I guess.

Back in a moment with a work song, buddy.

Well, Try. I guess a lot of hippies spent a few nights in jail, but nothing like this, buddy.

Incidentally, listeners, I had no idea that Otis Redding wrote this work song:




OTIS REDDING
Chain Gang

[Chorus:]
That's the sound of the men
They are working on the chain gang
That's the sound of the men
They are working on the chain gang
That's the sound of the men
They are working on the chain gang

All day long they work so hard
till the sun's comin' down
workin on the highways and biways
and wearin a frown

I hear them moanin' their lives away
and then you hear somebody say

[Chorus]

Hear someone sayin'
whoa I work, work so hard
See my woman, who I love so dear,
but I, I've got to work right here.

[Chorus]

My, my, my, my, I work so hard
Give me water, I'm thirsty
Whoa I, I work so hard

You hear them moanin' their lives away,
and then you hear somebody say

[Chorus 2x]

Ah, love that one, Try. Well, let's hear the other grape vine, then:

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine Lyrics
(Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong)

Ooh, I bet you're wondering how I knew
'bout you're plans to make me blue
with some other guy that you knew before.
Between the two of us guys
you know I love you more.
It took me by surprise I must say,
when I found out yesterday.
Don't you know that...

[Chorus:]
I heard it through the grapevine
not much longer would you be mine.
Oh I heard it through the grapevine,
Oh and I'm just about to lose my mind.
Honey, honey yeah.

I know that a man ain't supposed to cry,
but these tears I can't hold inside.
Losin' you would end my life you see,
cause you mean that much to me.
You could have told me yourself
that you love someone else.
Instead...

[Chorus]

People say believe half of what you see,
son, and none of what you hear.
I can't help bein' confused
if it's true please tell me dear?
Do you plan to let me go
for the other guy you loved before?
Don't you know...

[Chorus]

Letty, quite a songwriter was Mr. Redding. he also wrote this one:

(oo) What you want
(oo) Baby, I got
(oo) What you need
(oo) Do you know I got it?
(oo) All I'm askin'
(oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)

I ain't gonna do you wrong while you're gone
Ain't gonna do you wrong (oo) 'cause I don't wanna (oo)
All I'm askin' (oo)
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

I'm about to give you all of my money
And all I'm askin' in return, honey
Is to give me my profits
When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
When you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

[Instrumental break]

Ooo, your kisses (oo)
Sweeter than honey (oo)
And guess what? (oo)
So is my money (oo)
All I want you to do (oo) for me
Is give it to me when you get home (re, re, re,re)
Yeah baby (re, re, re,re)
Whip it to me (respect, just a little bit)
When you get home, now (just a little bit)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB

Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)
I get tired (just a little bit)
Keep on tryin' (just a little bit)
You're runnin' out of foolin' (just a little bit)
And I ain't lyin' (just a little bit)
(re, re, re, re) 'spect
When you come home (re, re, re,re)
Or you might walk in (respect, just a little bit)
And find out I'm gone (just a little bit)
I got to have (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)

Tennessee Waltz

Written by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King.
Additional verse: Leonard Cohen.


I was dancing with my darlin'
to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
Introduced him to my loved one
and while they were waltzing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me.
I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes I lost my little darlin'
The night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz.
She comes dancing through the darkness
To the Tennessee Waltz
And I feel like I'm falling apart
And it's stronger than drink
And it's deeper than sorrow
This darkness she's left in my heart.

Wow! M.D. I had no idea he wrote that one as well. All I knew about Otis was "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay."

Watched Tombstone again last evening. A fantastic movie, really. Seeing Val Kilmer as the Doc reminded me of his song, Light my Fire. in the movie about The Doors, but that's not the one that I want to play this evening:

UNKNOWN SOLDIER
The Doors

Wait until the war is over
And we're both a little older
The unknown soldier
Breakfast where the news is read
Television children fed
Unborn living, living, dead
Bullet strikes the helmet's head
And it's all over
For the unknown soldier
It's all over
For the unknown soldier
Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Comp'nee
Halt
Preeee-zent!
Arms!
Make a grave for the unknown soldier
Nestled in your hollow shoulder
The unknown soldier
Breakfast where the news is read
Television children fed
Bullet strikes the helmet's head
And, it's all over
The war is over
It's all over
The war is over
Well, all over, baby
All over, baby
Oh, over, yeah
All over, baby
Wooooo, hah-hah
All over
All over, baby
Oh, woa-yeah
All over
All over
Heeeeyyyy

Marvin Gaye?

My lord, this thread has become an institution.

Dys, Don't you know that Marvin was NOT "gaye". You are such a bad boy, cowboy; however, his father shot him and he died.

edgar. Another big surprise about The Tennessee Waltz, Texas. If I recall correctly, that was the very first song in which a recording artist sang with herself, so to speak.

Yes, of course, that's why I spend so much time here.

Oh you have such a pretty face
You favor a girl I once knew
I imagine that she's in Tennessee
Oh Lord I should be there too.

But I left Tennessee in a hurry dear
The same way that I'm leaving you
For love is mainly just memories
And everyone's got them but few.

It's a brand new Tennessee waltz
You're literally just waltzing on air
It's a brand new Tennessee waltz
With no telling who will be there

When I leave it'll be like I found you love
Descending victorian stairs
I'm feeling like one of your photographs
With not even you left to care.

Have all your passionate violins play
A tune for a Tennessee kid
Who's feeling like leaving another town
With no place to go if he did.

My word, There's JL. Hey, buddy, did you creep in on little cat feet? <smile> Love that poem, incidentally. and pay no attention to dys, he doesn't like me.

Hey, bet our dys did leave Tennessee in a hurry, and I will also wager that you don't know this Willie song:

Columbus Stockade Blues Lyrics
Artist: Willie Nelson
Album: Country Favorites


Way down in Columbus Georgia wanna be back in Tennessee
Way down in Columbus Stockade friends have turned their backs on me
Go on and leave me if you wish to never let me cross your mind
In your heart you love another leave me little darlin' I don't mind
Way down in Columbus Georgia...
[ fiddle - guitar ]
Way down in Columbus Georgia...
Leave me little darlin' I don't mind.

Music and lyrics by Jimmy Driftwood: Jimmy Driftwood was a high school principal and history teacher who loved to sing, play instruments and write songs. Mr. Driftwood wrote many songs, all for the sole purpose of helping his students learn about this battle and other historical events. But this song turned out to be so popular that it won the 1959 Grammy Award for Song Of The Year (awarded in 1960 for musical accomplishments in 1959). Johnny Horton also won the 1959 Grammy Award for Best Country And Western Performance for his recording of this song. "The Battle of New Orleans," is about a battle in the War of 1812, and it became one of the biggest selling hits of 1959. Students might also be interested to know that there is a movie called "The Buccaneer" about the Battle of New Orleans. It is interesting to reflect on the fact that despite the turbulant early relationship between England and the American colonists, our two countries have long since been strongly united. The words were written to correspond with an old fiddle tune called "The 8th of January," which is the date of the famous "Battle of New Orleans".
Narrative by Jimmy Driftwood:

"After the Battle of New Orleans, which Andrew Jackson won on January the 8th eighteen and fifteen, the boys played the fiddle again that night, only they changed the name of it from the battle of a place in Ireland to the "Eighth of January". Years passed and in about nineteen and forty-five an Arkansas school teacher slowed the tune down and put words to it and that song is The Battle Of New Orleans and I will try to sing it for you." (*Note -- two minor revisions were made for classroom use)

Well, in eighteen and fourteen we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British near the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, I see'd Mars Jackson walkin down the street
talkin' to a pirate by the name of Jean Lafayette [pronounced La-feet]
He gave Jean a drink that he brung from Tennessee
and the pirate said he'd help us drive the British in the sea.

The French said Andrew, you'd better run,
for Packingham's a comin' with a bullet in his gun.
Old Hickory said he didn't give a dang,
he's gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, we looked down the river and we see'd the British come,
and there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
while we stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire a musket til we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire til we see'd their faces well,
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave a yell.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We'll march back home but we'll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the people's President.
And every time we think about the bacon and the beans,
we'll think about the fun we had way down in New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin,
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

My word, edgar. We know Johnny, Texas, and he also did:

North To Alaska

Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two
With George Pratt his partner and brother Billy too
They crossed the Yukon river and they found the bonanza gold
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome
Sam crossed the Majestic mountains to the valleys far below
He talked to his team of huskies
As he mushed on through the snow
With the northen lights a-runnin' wild
In the land of the midnight sun
Yes Sam McCord was a mighty man
In the year of nineteen-one
Where the river is windin' big nuggets they're findin'
North to Alaska go north the rush is on
North to Alaska go north the rush is on
George turns to Sam with his gold in his hand
Said Sam you're lookin' at a lonely lonely man
I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land
For one small band of gold to place on sweet little Jenny's hand
'Cause a man needs a woman to love him all the time
Remember Sam a true love is so hard to find
I'd build for my Jenny a honeymoon home
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome
Where the river is windin' big nuggets they're findin'
North to Alaska go north the rush is on
North to Alaska go north the rush is on.

JL, would you rather hear a Paris song or a Sandburg poem. <smile>

I'm old Tom Moore from the bummer's shore in that good old golden days
They call me a bummer and a ginsot too, but what cares I for praise ?
I wander around from town to town just like a roving sign
And all the people say, "There goes Tom Moore, in the days of '49"
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

My comrades they all loved me well, a jolly saucy crew
A few hard cases I will recall though they all were brave and true
Whatever the pitch they never would flinch, they never would fret or whine
Like good old bricks they stood the kicks in the days of '49
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

There was New York Jake, the butcher boy, he was always getting tight
And every time that he'd get full he was spoiling for a fight
But Jake rampaged against a knife in the hands of old Bob Stein
And over Jake they held a wake in the days of '49
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

There was Poker Bill, one of the boys who was always in a game
Whether he lost or whether he won, to him it was always the same
He would ante up and draw his cards and he would you go a hatful blind
In the game with death Bill lost his breath, in the days of '49
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

There was Ragshag Bill from Buffalo, I never will forget
He would roar all day and he'd roar all night and I guess he's roaring yet
One day he fell in a prospect hole, in a roaring bad design
And in that hole he roared out his soul, in the days of '49
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

Of the comrades all that I've had, there's none that's left to boast
And I'm left alone in my misery like some poor wandering ghost
And I pass by from town to town, they call me a rambling sign
"There goes Tom Moore, a bummer shore in the days of '49 "
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.

Well, folks, there's always some old miner tellin' a tale of the gold rush. So, the irony lies in the fact that more people made money mining miners than miners made mining gold, and poor Mr. Sutter lost everything.