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Glory And Fame

David Rovics
Language: English


David Rovics

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[1993]
Album: We Just Want The World .[2005]
Lyrics and music by David Rovics
world

"I already recorded this song on my CD, Make It So [1996], and might not have recorded it once again, except that when Anne Feeney heard me sing it around a campfire at the Kerrville Folk Festival, she said she liked it but that it might stand a little editing. I had long thought that myself, and after she made the suggestion, Chrysler helped me cut out half the verses during a long drive one night someplace in the Midwest. My other name for the song is "Labor History 101." I used to call it "Ballad of the Proletariat," but Pete Seeger suggested I change the title, pointing out that "proletariat" is a "long, Latin word" which "might as well be in Swahili, or Chinese." I originally wrote the song in the spring of '93, and it has obviously been a victim of the "folk process."
I pulled the stones for the emperor,
stacked 'em up and made that wall
I thought, a mountain lasts forever
but the rain must always fall
I worked the mines in Chile
for conquistador
Died there in the pit shaft,
joined my family with the ore

I tapped the trees for Leopold,
and then he took my hands
The sap sailed to Brussels
and my blood stained the lands
I cut down the sugar cane
on the islands off the coast
Oh but the sweet taste of freedom
is the stuff that I love most

Tell me who am I
Do you know my name
Will I lie forgotten
Or arise in glory and fame

I fought with Poncho Villa,
stood with him side by side
When the Bluecoats took the land,
I thought how long is freedom's ride
I was there at Haymarket
with the martyrs eight
For striking in Chicago,
death would have to be my fate

I cut the timber in Centralia,
nearly broke my back
Tried to organize a union
and they tied me to the tracks
I fought in Barcelona,
kept the fascists there at bay
Then when Hitler's tanks came rolling,
I knew we couldn't stay

Tell me who am I
Do you know my name
Will I lie forgotten
Or arise in glory and fame

I mined the ore in Arizona,
last of the Navajo
Got that radium a-glowin'
then it was time for me to go
I marched in South Africa,
found myself in Sharpeville
Once the police came and went
I was lying oh so still

I campaigned for Allende
for a nation without fear
Didn't look behind me f
or the day I'd disappear
I spoke at Tiananmen
to revive the revolution
Didn't think for Deng Xiaoping,
rolling tanks were his solution

Tell me who am I
Do you know my name
Will I lie forgotten
Or arise in glory and fame…

I grew the mangos in Somalia
for the people in the west
And when the price of fruit went down,
I went down starving with the rest
I worked the plant in Bangkok,
breathed the dusty air
When the cotton started burning,
I knew my life would not be spared

The cops beat me in Los Angeles
but I would not be scared
When they sent the Army in,
I thought next time we'll be prepared
Yes I've been yearning for a new day,
all the world wide
Some day my time will come
and you will have to step aside

Tell me who am I
Do you know my name
Will I lie forgotten
Or arise in glory and fame.

Contributed by giorgio - 2009/10/9 - 09:38




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