Saturday, February 03, 2007

This mystery has been solved. Both these songs were recorded by "Bill Frederick" on a 1967 LP "Hey Hey LBJ". I heard from the artist through a post on another site. He is still recording under his real name, Fred Stanton.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Unknown author and singer


Does anyone remember who wrote and recorded the following songs found on a reel to reel tape with no idendification?

"Exploitaition Blues"

Years ago in the Belgian Congo mine
King Leopold was doing mighty fine
Working the people like a bunch of mules
He built himself a palace while they had no schools
The people they got those exploitation blues

Please don’t burn that limousine
Don’t throw tomatoes at the submarines
Think of all we’ve done for you
You know you’ve just got those exploitation blues

Santo Domingo everybody knows
We had a little trouble not long ago
Shouts of freedom were in the air
Democracy threatens us everywhere
So we sent them a case of those exploitation blues

Please don’t burn that limousine
Don’t throw tomatoes at the submarines
Think of all we’ve done for you
You know you’ve just got those exploitation blues

We freed Cuba in the Spanish American war
We gave them freedoms they never had before
We let them work for free for united fruit
Gave La Battista lots of guns to shoot
And the people they got those exploitation blues

Please don’t burn that limousine
Don’t throw tomatoes at the submarines
Think of all we’ve done for you
You know you’ve just got those exploitation blues

We helped those dirty peasants in Vietnam
We gave them poison gas and napalm bombs
We gave them a chance to fight our war
But they don’t seem to love us anymore
I guess they just got those exploitation blues

Please don’t burn that limousine
Don’t throw tomatoes at the submarines
Think of all we’ve done for you
You know you’ve just got those exploitation blues


"How Far We Have Come"

When our fathers came to this golden land
There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand
And a few million Indians running around
Now look what we’ve made of the little they found

There’s cities of silver that shine in the night
Churches of splendor and halls of delight
And only an echo of Indian drums
Who can deny how far we have come

The slave ships they came with the whip and the rack
And a million black people with scars on their back
Picked cotton, drew water, and slept in the cold
With a bible for comfort they were happy and cold

The laws they were passed, slavery went
Our lives integrated at least six percent
In the sharecroppers shack and the big city slum
Who can deny how far we have come

The immigrants came from the green Irish shore
From Poland and Russia, ten million and more
Germany, Italy, all the world round
To settle our ghettos and immigrant towns

Their brains and their bodies they put to the wheel
To build our great factories and towers of steel
To march to our battles and carry our guns
Who can deny how far we have come

Now all through the Andes, they’ve heard of our name
On the factory wall, in the palace of shame
They drink Coca Cola and the times that they spend
Goes straight to the pockets of our businessmen

To pay for our Fords, and our split level homes
Our Hi-Fis and records and six percent loans
Our profits protected with dictators guns
Who can deny how far we have come

In Asia and Africa, they’re learning too
How free enterprise can do wonders for you
South Africas prisons are bursting with men
Barbed wire keeps the Vietnamese in
Where elections are daydreams that never get far
American weapons are there standing guard
We’re ready to fight for the lands that we run
Who can deny how far we have come

Our fears they are many though they’re seldom saved
They’re black and they’re yellow and they’re brown and they’re red
They see through the legend, they smell the decay
They’re learning to fight the American way

And we in our armchairs are quick to condemn
Our bankbooks are falling, our profits might end
The breaking of change is our funeral hum
Who can deny how far we have come

When our fathers came to this golden land
There was nothing but forests and rivers and sand
And a few million Indians running around
Now look what we’ve made of the little they found

There’s cities of silver that shine in the night
Churches of splendor and halls of delight
And only an echo of Indian drums
Who can deny how far we have come