Almanac Music: ‘Sitting in an English garden’ – Songs That Refer to Countries
Almanac Music: ‘Sitting in an English garden’ – Songs That Refer to Countries
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs referring to countries. By this, I mean songs that refer to a specific country directly, either via the noun form (e.g. ‘Australia’), or its adjective form (e.g. ‘Australian’). This theme does not include official national anthems.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘I Am the Walrus’, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (actually written by John), performed by The Beatles (1967)
‘Sitting in an English garden’
‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (actually written by Paul), performed by The Beatles (1968)
‘American Woman’, written by Burton Cummings, Garry Peterson, Jim Kale and Randy Bachman, performed by The Guess Who (1970)
‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’, written and performed by Billy Joel (1977)
‘Oh England My Lionheart’, written and performed by Kate Bush (1978)
‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Brian Johnston, performed by AC/DC (1980)
‘Knockin’ me out with those American thighs’
‘Jack and Diane’, written and performed by John Mellencamp (1982)
‘Two American kids’
‘Born in the U.S.A.’, written and performed by Bruce Springsteen (1984)
‘Sounds of Then (This is Australia)’, written by Mark Callaghan, performed by GANGgajang (1985)
‘I Am Australian’, written by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton, performed by Bruce Woodley (1987)
‘American Idiot’, written by Billy Joe Armstrong and Green Day, performed by Green Day (2004)
‘Let England Shake’, written and performed by P. J. Harvey (2011)
………………………………………….
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) involving specific countries, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
Read more Almanac Poetry HERE
If you would like to receive the Almanac Music and Poetry newsletter we will add you to the list. Please email us: [email protected]
To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – click HERE.
About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
‘Australia’ – The Kinks, is the first one that comes to mind.
“Don’t cry for me Argentina” – many artists
“Panama” – Van Halen
“Cambodia” – Kim Wilde
“Africa” – Toto
“China girl” – David Bowie
“Body of an American” – The Pogues ‘I’m a free born man of the USA’
“USA” – The Pogues
One of the great opening verses, Common People by Pulp:
She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College
That’s where I caught her eye
She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said “In that case, I’ll have rum and Coca-Cola”
Thanks, KD. This should be fun.
Thanks, Col – what a fine, highly apt number to open the batting with!
Thank you, Smokie, for your excellent, eclectic bunch of thematically ‘spot on’ songs. Kim Wilde’s ‘Cambodia’ has always been a personal favourite, as has ‘Africa’, to mention but two of your choices.
Oh – of course, strictly speaking ‘Africa’ is a continent, as opposed to a country! (I just realised that, in my early morning, half-asleep, state.)
Nifty, witty song from you, Mickey – thank you.
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
I came home with a brand-new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I just plant it up a holler down Copperhead Road.
Steve Earle having his narrator sing ‘I done two tours of duty’ is great. Using a past participle (‘done’) where a simple past verb (‘did’) should be is such a simple but effective way of staying in character. ‘Done’ evokes an entire life.
Three countries in one verse!
Voice of America: Asia
Letter from Zimbabwe: Australian Crawl
Chinese eyes: Australian Crawl
Mid-life crisis: Australian Crawl
Land of hope and glory: Australian Crawl/James Reyne
Surfin’ USA: Beach Boys
Letter from Spain: Electric Light Orchestra
Calling America: Electric Light Orchestra
In Old England town: Electric Light Orchestra
All over the world: Electric Light Orchestra
Orinoco Flow: Enya
Roman holiday: Mondo Rock
Fall of Rome: James Reyne
I’ve been to Bali too: Redgum
Servin’ USA: Redgum
America: Simon and Garfunkel
Kathy’s song: Simon and Garfunkel
Thanks for ‘Copperhead Road’, Mickey – yep, three countries constitute a fine selection.
Fine bunch of choices, thanks, Liam. To choose but two for comment, Reyne’s ‘Fall of Rome’ has long been a personal favourite, as has Crawl’s ‘Mid-Life Crisis’.
Orstralia – The Saints
A New England – Billy Bragg
Australia’s God – Black Chrome
I’m So Bored (With The USA) – The Clash
Livin In The Land Of Oz – Ross Wilson
Thanks for this quintet, Swish. Good stuff!
American Girl – Tom Petty
Six Months In A Leaky Boat – Split Enz (‘Aotearoa’)
Brilliant Mistake – Elvis Costello (‘He thought he was the King of America’)
American Without Tears – EC
American Squirm – Nick Lowe
Turning Japanese – The Vapors
Young Americans – David Bowie
God Bless America – Models
Winter In America – Doug Ashdown
Parties In The USA – Jonathan Richman
England, Half English – Billy Bragg
The Few – Billy Bragg (‘What do they know of England who only England know?’)
Greetings To The New Brunette – Billy Bragg (‘How can you lie there and think of England when you don’t even know who’s in the team?’)
America Is Waiting – Eno and Byrne
Help Save The Youth of America – Billy Bragg
Life On Mars? – David Bowie (‘It’s on America’s tortured brow, that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow’)
Breakfast in America: Supertramp.
Of the Australian Crawl songs mentioned before, Mid-life Crisis and Letter from Zimbabwe are both from the album Sons of Beaches. That’s one of my top 6 favourite albums of all time. It also.includes an alternate version of Downhearted.
Thanks, Swish, for your second installment.
I realise we could have had a lengthy songlist if we’d just stuck to songs mentioning America and words closely connected to it, like ‘American’ and ‘USA’ – the Yanks, it seems, do like to refer to their country just about every time they get the chance. That said, the way this ‘countries’ theme is framed to involve all countries makes for greater interest and diversity.
Thanks for ‘Breakfast in America ‘, Liam.
Of course, I’m a pretty big Crawl fan myself, too.
Challenge accepted KD
April Sun In Cuba – Dragon
Russian Autumn Heart – The Church
Oliver’s Army – EC and the Attractions (Hong Kong, Palestine, China)
The Ballad Of John and Yoko – Beatles (Holland, France)
Boots of Spanish Leather – Dylan
Commando – Ramones (Vietnam, Germany)
53rd and 3rd – Ramones (Vietnam)
Mexican Radio – Wall Of Voodoo
Waiting For The End Of The World – EC (Spain)
Haitian Divorce – Steely Dan
Spanish Stroll – Mink DeVille
Jamaican Farewell – Ariel
“Summer in Siam” – Pogues
“Turkish song of the damned” – Pogues
“Greenland whale fisheries” – Pogues
“Green fields of France” – Eric Bogle
Thanks for your latest lot, Swish – fine diversity there!
And you’ve reminded me that a band I played in a long time ago covered ‘Jamaican Farewell’ – some nice guitar work in that one.
Thank you for your latest choices, Smokie.
A special nod for including a song that specifically mentions Greenland!
Good Friday morning KD & thanks for the new theme!
The mention of Greenland, made me think of that classic Monty Python song ‘Finland’
‘Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be’
The 2nd verse is right up this theme’s alley:
‘You’re so near to Russia
So far from Japan
Quite a long way from Cairo
Lots of miles from Vietnam’
and for good measure, verse 4 throws in ‘Belgium’.
Good Friday morning to you, too, Karl.
‘Finland’ is a fine, multi-country choice.
The Pistols, God save the Queen (God save the Queen/We mean it, man/There is no future/In England’s dreaming)
Billy Joe Shaver, Aint No God in Mexico (Ain’t no God in Mexico/Ain’t no comfort in the kin/When you’re down in Matamoros/Gettin’ busted by the man)
Thank you for your Pistols and Shaver songs, Rick. We’re off to a flying start with this new ‘countries’ theme!
Here’s a couple from Jackson Browne’s superb 1972 self-titled debut album (that some of us, including I, mistakenly called ‘Saturate Before Using’.
Jamaica Say You Will
(Although I note that ‘Jamaica’ may not refer to the country as such)
Something Fine
‘Now you say “Morocco” and that makes me smile
I haven’t seen Morocco for a long, long while’
‘The future hides and the past just slides, England lies between
Floating in a silver mist so cold and so clean’
Marrakesh Express: Crosby Stills and Nash
Holiday in Cambodia – Dead Kennedys
American Jesus – Bad Religion
American Dream – Bad Religion
Hitsville UK – The Clash
This is England – The Clash
Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo
Thanks for the Jackson Browne numbers, Karl. Every time the word ‘Morrocco’ is in my consciousness an impossibly poetic, romantic, exotic place springs to mind.
Thank you for your batch of six, Greg.
Thanks for ‘Marrakesh Express’, Liam. It’s a song where ‘Moroccan skies’ are mentioned – Marrakesh, of course, being a city.
Some Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros songs and a trip around the world involving music, history, politics, food and sport):
Techno D-Day (Well, it was a techno D-day out on Omaha Beach/I was a reserve DJ playing Columbian mountain beats)
Forbidden City (Oh, China/Yeah, China/Gold silk in a loom in the dragon room/That silk that will be for the flag of the free)
Gobal A Go Go (Stray Cat strut in Bulawayo/Buddy Rich in Burundi/Quadrophenia in Armenia/Armenia City in the sky/Big Youth booming in Djakarta/Nina Simone over Sierra Leone/Wild sound of Joujouka in Nevada/Everywhere, everywhere/Bob’s bringing it all back home)
Bhindi Bhagee (Well, I was walking down the High Road/And this guy stops me/He’d just got in from New Zealand/And he was looking for mushy peas/I said, “No”/”We haven’t really got ’em ’round here”/I said, “But we do got”/Balti, bhindi, strictly Hindi/Dal, halal and I’m walking down the road/We got rock sole, okra,/Bombay dhokla/Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without/With it or without/Bagels soft or simply harder/Exotic avocado or toxic empanada/We got ackee, lassi, Somali wacky baccy/I’m sure back home you know what tikka’s all about/What tikka’s all about)
Shaktar Donetsk (He had the wooly scarf of Shaktar Donetsk/Nay, the banner of freedom/Wound around his neck/Inherited from his father/One of the Ukraine exiles of Yugoslavia)
These are difficult times on planet Earth – impossible to comprehend: maybe it has always been this way????
Sting – Russians
We share the same biology, regardless of ideology
But what might save us, me and you
Is if the Russians love their children too
Note: for ‘Russians’ you can substitute other countries.
Down In Bermuda – Jonathan Richman (may not be geopolitically accurate)
Ask – The Smiths (‘Spending warm summer days indoors, writing frightening verse to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg’)
A couple of execrable local efforts
Barbados – Models
Jamaica Rum – Ted Mulry Gang
Another Australian Crawl and James Reyne classic: Reckless (which mentions “Russian sub beneath the Arctic).
A Case of You – Joni Mitchell
“On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice.”
He’s on the Beach – Kirsty MacColl
“I know he’s changed somehow, it’s in his postcards now
He’s in Australia, so far out of reach
And he says it’s brilliant there”
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
“”I think I’ll call it America, ” I said as we hit land
I took a deep breath, I fell down, I could not stand”
“They asked me for collateral and I pulled down my pants
They threw me in the alley, when up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house, I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out an’ robbed my boots an’ was I on the street again”
Killing Floor – Redgum
“Joe spoke no english but he had a dream
And he saved up most of his pay
To bring his wife and six kids from Lebanon
And settle down here to stay”
High Germany – Martin Carthy (trad c.1780)
““O Polly love, O Polly, the rout has now begun,
And we must go a-marching to the beating of the drum.
Go dress yourself all in your best and come along with me;
I’ll take you to the war, my love, in High Germany.”
Not many suggestions from the 21st Century in these comments… So I’m going to submit ‘Brazil’, a young Declan McKenna’s beautiful anti-FIFA protest tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHgh77iE6qc
What a wonderful world tour with Joe and the Mescaleros, Rick! Thanks so much for this splendid offering!
Thank you for the Sting song, Karl – spot on thematically and on terms of topicality.
Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs – some songs about and or referencing Australia:
Wimbledon
Kangaroo Hop
Australian Heat
Convict Streak
Suburban Rock
Thanks, Swish – your choices are always particularly interesting. For some reason, Mulry’s ‘Jamaica Rum’ reminds me of Bill Wyman’s ‘Je Suis Un Rock Star’ – maybe it’s the soporific delivery in both instances.
Fine pick up in terms of ‘Reckless’ and ‘Russian subs’ – thank you, Liam.
Wonderful selections in a folk vein, as is your wont – thank you, Dave.
Incidentally, one of the best live performances I’ve ever attended was in a small hall in Port Fairy in the mid-1990s, with Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick in full flight.
The 21st century is always welcome in comments such as these, Edward. I’m sure many of us will give ‘Brazil’ a listen. Thanks for your contribution.
Thanks, Rick, for a dose of Dave W. Always most welcome.
AUSTRALIA by The Shins
Postcard by Karma County “I don’t wanna hear / that you’re a hostage somewhere / like CAMBODIA”
Backwater by Brian Eno “There was a senator from ECUADOR who talked about a meteor”
EGYPT by Mental As Anything
So Long By Fischer Z “I hired a detective to try and find out where you are / I managed to trace you / he said you were living in FRANCE” – one of the duddest rhymes in popular music
South of GERMANY by Paul Kelly & The Messengers
Errol by Australian Crawl “NEW GUINEA Highlands”
No Depression In NEW ZEALAND by Blam Blam Blam
Valet Parking by Super Furry Animals “Just head out for POLAND”
ZANZIBAR by Hoodoo Gurus
Some great hip hop songs about and referencing America:
America has a Problem, Beyonce
This is America, Childish Gambino
The Blacker the Berry, Kendrick Lamar
We the People, A Tribe Called Quest
Ms Jackson, Outkast
A wider selection of songs for this post.
Made in Japan – Buck Owens
“My transistor radio comes from far away
And when it’s night over here over there it’s a breakin’ day
I remember all the good times I had a walkin’ in the sand
With the beautiful girl that I met made in Japan”
I’d Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China – written by Frank Loesser in 1948 and song by a wide range of singers from Bing Crosby to Jimmy Buffett
“I’d love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself, alone.
Get you and keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers weeping on the far away shore.
Out on the briny with a moon big and shiny
Melting your heart of stone.
I’d love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself, alone.”
Heron Song – Ralph McTell
“And once I walked a million miles
All the way to Yugoslavia
And I carried you all of the way
For where I was then there you are”
Travelin’ Soldier – The (Dixie) Chicks
“So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart
It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of
He said, “When it’s getting kinda rough over here,
I think of that day sittin’ down at the pier.
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile.
Don’t worry, but I won’t be able to write for awhile.”
I Feel like I’m Fixin’ to Die – Country Joe and the Fish
“Well, come on all of you, big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
Yeah, he’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun
Gonna have a whole lotta fun
And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it’s five, six, seven
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die”
Pancho and Lefty – Townes Van Zandt
“Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
Ah but that’s the way it goes
All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose’
It’s a Hard Life wherever you go – Nanci Griffith
“I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
The man at the wheel’s name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, “Now, what chance has that
Kid got?”
And I say from the back, “I don’t know.”
He says, “There’s barbed wire at all of these exits
And there ain’t no place in Belfast for that kid
To go.”
It’s a hard life
It’s a hard life
It’s a very hard life
It’s a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they’ll know
And there ain’t no place in (Belfast) for
These kids to go”
Thanks, Chris, for your diverse, interesting and highly apt selection of songs. I thought the mention of New Guinea in Australian Crawl’s ‘Errol’ was a particularly good pick up.
Thanks, Rick, for your latest song choices. It’s not that often that the hip hop genre is represented in this themed series, as you’d know. Such diversity is a very good thing.
Fine selection, as always, Dave. The lyrics you quoted are full of interest, relevant to our theme, as well as being of high quality.
As we pass the half way on our way towards another century……
Here’s an old faithful of mine ~ Rick Wakeman’s ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’:
In Iceland, where the mountain stood with pride
They set off with their guide, to reach the mountain side
And, a bit of Dylan ~ With God On Our Side
‘We forgave the Germans, and then we were friends’
‘I learned to hate the Russians all through my whole life’
What’s He Building, Tom Waits – Indonesia
Big in Japan, Tom Waits – Japan
Galveston Bay, Springsteen – Vietnam
Sinaloa Cowboys, Springsteen – Mexico
This one is for Dave Nadal.
Little Mathie Grove, by Ralph Stanley. This song is based on an old English ballad dating back to the 17th century, and has many versions with different lyrics and even titles. One of the better known versions is by Fairport Convention but their song pales compared to this confronting grizzly tale. And it mentions a country!
On a high, on a high, on a high holiday
On the very best day of the year
Little Mathie Grove to the church did go
The Holy Word to hear
Some come in all dressed in white
Some in purple and blue
And then come in Lord Arnold’s wife
A flower among the few
She looked at him, he looked at her
The like had never been done
’til she got up and took his hand
And bade him come along
Well they tossed and they turn?d in the bed all night
’til they lay fast asleep
Wh?n they woke in the new morn’s dawn
Lord Arnold was at their feet
He said “Get up, little Mathie Grove
And put your clothing on
For it’ll never be known in old England
I slayed a naked man.”
Hi KD
I am currently looking at Danish artists who have covered Dylan songs. One such band of interest to me is the Delta Cross Band. This Danish band was joined by US guitarist Billy Cross – who had just finished touring with Dylan between 1977-79 and also played on his Street Legal album.
One of Billy’s subsequent solo albums includes a song titled:
Denmark Rocks
and the songs lyrics includes: ‘Denmark rocks every day of the year’
cheers, KD
Thanks for the post, Rick. I have heard lots of versions of Matty Groves and Little Musgrave but that is the first bluegrass version.
Back to Sixties Folk for these.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Now That The Buffalo’s Gone
“When a war between nations is fought
The loser, we know, pays the cost
But even when Germany fell to your hands
Consider, dear lady, consider, dear man
You left them their pride, and you left them their lands
And what have you done to these ones?’
The Universal Soldier
“And He’s fighting for Canada.
He’s fighting for France.
He’s fighting for the USA.
And he’s fighting for the Russians.
And he’s fighting for Japan
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.”
My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying
“Oh, see what our trust in America’s bought us?
My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying”
Judy Collins
The Fisherman’s Song.
“Way out on the ocean
The big ships hunt for whales
The Japanese have caught so many
That now they hunt for snails”
My Father
“My father always promised us
That we would live in France
We’d go boating on the Seine
And I would learn to dance”
Phil Ochs
The Marines have landed on the Shores of Santo Domingo
” … And the crabs are crazy, they scuttle back and forth
The sand is burning
And the fish take flight and scatter from the sight
Their courses turning
… As the seagulls rest on the cold cannon nest
The sea is churning
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo
Talking Vietnam Blues
“Sailing over to Vietnam
Southeast Asian Birmingham
Well training is the word we use
Nice word to have in case we lose
Training a million Vietnamese
To fight for the wrong government and the American Way
Rick Wakeman, Bob Dylan, Billy Cross … you’re certainly covering some interesting ground with your latest song selections, Karl – thanks.
And your mention of Iceland reminded me of a groundbreaking Icelandic music film, Rokk í Reykjavík, released in Iceland in 1982, which highlighted Iceland’s renowned alternative music scene, including a teenage Bjork and her band Tappi Tíkarrass.
Thank you for your latest choices, Rick, including the particularly interesting ‘Little Mathie Grove’.
Certainly some fine sixties folk in your latest group of songs, Dave. Many thanks.
(Side note: Santo Domingo is a capital city rather than country though, isn’t it? The country is the Dominican Republic in this context.)
any reference to the mighty Oils U.S. FORCES?!
what a great thread this is!
Rabbit in the Vineyard
Happy Sunday KD – finally some sunshine & warmth up our way!
A big ‘high five’ to Dave N for Universal Soldier – surely the best multi-country song ever written!
How about a few more Dylan to keep this thread humming along~~~~some countries not mentioned so far (maybe?)
Foot Of Pride (Infidels outtake)
‘They like to take all his money from sin
Build big prisons to do experiments in
Sing Amazing Grace all the way to the Swiss banks’
She Belongs To Me
‘She wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks’
Mozambique
‘There’s lot of pretty girls in Mozambique
And plenty time for good romance
And everybody likes to stop and speak
To give the special one you seek a chance
Or maybe say hello with just a glance’
Glad you’re enjoying the thread, RITV – thanks for ‘U.S. Forces’, which hasn’t been mentioned yet (surprisingly).
Happy Sunday to you, Karl – the weather has also taken a turn for the better down my way. You’ve delivered some yet to be mentioned countries in your latest Dylan selections, too. Thanks for these songs. (As far as I can see, Switzerland and Mozambique are first time inclusions, while Egypt has already got a nod as the name of a Mental as Anything song.)
And speaking of Egypt, I’m really surprised the Bangles’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ hasn’t received a guernsey until now.
We can’t forget Joni Mitchell’s fabulous calypso-influenced song ‘Carey’ from her Blue album of 1971. In the opening verse, there’s ‘I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne’. This song, incidentally, has been circulating in my head for weeks!
Sunday arvo has dawned.
Talking of Joni, she also has:
In France They Kiss On Main Street (from her 1875 Hissing Of Summer Lawns album)
”In France, they kiss on Main Street
Amour, mama, not cheap display’
Chinese Cafe (from her 1982 Wild Things Run Fast album)
‘Down at the Chinese Cafe
We’d be dreaming on our dimes’
Ethiopia (from her 1985 Dog Eat Dog album)
‘Hot winds and hunger cries, Ethiopia
Flies in your babies’ eyes, Ethiopia
Walking sticks on burning plains
Betrayed by politics’
Now, back to Dylan, and what might qualify as the most ‘countrified’ song ever (the equivalent of Lucky Starr’s ‘Ive Been Everywhere”
Union Sundown (from his 1983 Infidels album)
The song is centred on the movement of manufacturing away from the US to just about everywhere else in the world (& we now know the repercussions of those decisions back in the 70’s onwards).
The chorus is:
‘Well, it’s sundown on the union
And what’s made in the USA
Sure was a good idea
‘Til greed got in the way’
The country mentioned & products manufactured are:
Singapore (shoes)
Taiwan (flashlights)
Malaysia (tablecloths)
Philippines (shirts)
Argentina (Chevrolet car – by a guy making thirty cents a day)
Hong Kong (silk dress)
Japan (pearls)
India (dog collars)
Pakistan (flower pots)
Brazil (furniture)
El Salvador (jobs in general)
‘When it costs too much to build it at home
You just build it cheaper someplace else
Well, it’s sundown on the union’
Yes you are right KD. Santa Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic. I remembered the Phil Ochs’ song and I remembered the US intervention in the Dominican Civil War, but it was late at night and I didn’t check my memory of the Country’s name. Sorry.
Some ripper Mitchell and Dylan selections – thanks, Karl. And ‘Union Sundown ‘ is just about this current theme’s pinnacle song, isn’t it?
(And I can’t help mentioning your ‘1875’ Mitchell album, Hissing Of Summer Lawns – I sympathize in relation to typos!)
All good, Dave – this theme does occasionally test our geographic recall!
Still a ways to go ‘fore the century – but if we knuckle down & take no risks, then we might just squeak in….
I’ve mentioned it before (in the mountains theme) and I’m gonna mention it again ~ the one & only time Dylan has mentioned ‘Australia’ in a song – and it is mid nineteen60’s, off the Bringing It All back Home album~
Outlaw Blues
‘Well, I wish I was on some Australian mountain range
I got no business being there, but I imagine it would be some kind of change’
Thanks for ‘Outlaw Blues’, Karl. I do recall you mentioning it previously under the umbrella of the mountains theme.
And, yes, all things being equal, we should make our way to a solid century.
Did anyone say Warren Zevon?
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (countries mentioned: Denmark, Biafra, Norway, Congo, Ireland, Lebanon, Palestine)
The Envoy (Israel, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, El Salvador,)
Lawyers, Guns and Money (Russia, Honduras)
Mr Bad Example (Malaysia, Sri Lanka)
Seminole Bingo (Liechtenstein)
Genius (France)
And Vera Cruz mentions the American troops.
Pulp,
Boys and Girls. “streets like a jungle, so call the police, following the herd down to Greece”
Jello Biafra,
Full Metal Jackoff. America, Columbia, Chile and Guatemala all get a run.
Van Morrison.
Summertime in England. “Will you meet me in the country in the Summertime in England, will you meet me”
Bob Dylan,
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. Bob references Spanish manners and Arabian drums.
Zevon is certainly in the ‘always welcome’ category as far as singer-songwriters are concerned in these themed songlists – thanks, Rick, for your WZ entries – and to Dave for the additional song in this context.
Thanks, Graham, for your range of interesting and highly apt songs.
Gee I forgot to put the one I originally wanted – Nick Cave.
The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane. “And the man with the wing nut ears said “Hey I married her back in Spain”.
Tom Waits. – Big in Japan.
Up there with Bob’s Union Sundown, but with slightly less lyrical and political heft is the wonderful Brad Paisley song, American Saturday Night, which includes 9 different countries in the lyrics and tale:
America
Brazil
Germany
Russia (USSR)
France
Spain
Canada
Italy
China
And then there is the cringeworthy song, I’ve Never Been to Me by Charlene, that includes the lyric, “the isle of Greece” whatever the fuck that means.
To set the world (well at least my contribution to KDs latest theme) back on its axis, may I also submit the following:
Hello in There, John Prine (John and Linda live in Omaha/And Joe is somewhere on the road/We lost Davy in the Korean war/And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore)
Spanish Pipedream comes from the same album and a song called Mexican Home comes from his third album.
Cheers
I’m enjoying the recent momentum in this thread – feel like I’m on an overseas adventure!
I ain’t never been to Mexico but these Dylan lyrics might just take me there:
Brownsville Girl (from 1986’s ‘Knocked Out Loaded’ album)
‘Well, we drove that car all night into San Anton’
And we slept near the Alamo, your skin was so tender and soft
Way down in Mexico you went out to
Find a doctor and you never came back’
Farewell (1962 outtake)
‘Oh it’s fare thee well my darlin’ true
I’m leavin’ in the first hour of the morn
I’m bound off for the bay of Mexico
Or maybe the coast of Californ
Caribbean Wind (1980 outtake)
‘And them Caribbean winds still blow
From Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire’
Thanks, Graham, for Cave’s ‘The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane’. (‘Big in Japan’ was listed earlier by Rick Kane.)
Thanks, Rick, for your very latest selections – Paisley’s multi – country ‘American Saturday Night’ definitely deserves a special nod, while Prine’s ‘Spanish Pipedream’ directly prompted me to come another for our list, the Lieber/Stoller composed classic, ‘Spanish Harlem’, originally a hit, as I recall it, for Ben E. King.
Thanks, Karl, for your Dylan ‘Mexico trio’.
Like you, I’m enjoying this thread’s recent momentum. I feel like we’re collectively surfing a wonderful wave!
Not to be picky KD but I don’t think Spanish Harlem qualifies. It is a neighbourhood in Manhattan also known as East Harlem.
Even though I’m not KD and I don’t actually have a vote, I’m going to allow Spanish Harlem, as its name reference the population of the neighbourhood in NYC, with a term that has its origins in Spain’s conquest and subsequent colonial era in the Americas. My concern was citing Ben E rather than Aretha, and yes it is a wafer thin difference because they are both great versions. My other reason for allowing it in is to assist passage of my next suggestion:
Dublin Blues, the great Guy Clark song with the line about the Spanish Steps. Oh, he mentions Spain itself as well.
Cheers
Thanks, Dave and Rick, for your comments.
I’ve included ‘Spanish Harlem’ as it aligns with my introductory definition of our ‘countries’ theme, where referring to a country via its noun or adjective form is specifically mentioned. (As we all know, Spanish is the adjective form of Spain.)
Thanks, Rick, also, for ‘Dublin Blues’, which prompted me to think of ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’ (various artists, of course).
Dylan – When I Paint My Masterpiece
‘Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you’re seein’ double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs’
Thanks for ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’, Karl.
Some big guns:
Jesus, the Missing Years, John Prine (He went to France, he went to Spain/He found love, he found pain/He found stores so he started to shop/He had no money so he got in trouble with a cop/Kids in trouble with the cops from Israel didn’t have no home/So he cut his hair and moved to Rome/It was there he met his Irish bride/And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome/Italy that is)
The Aztec Dance, Bruce (With cannon and horses ‘cross the causeways, their cavalry charged/Like fields of locust feastin’ on a thousand brave warriors’ hearts/Our blood turned red, the waters of Texcoco/Spanish soldiers drowned ‘neath the weight of the gold they stole/”Montezuma and Cuauhtémoc are in their graves/And our people of the valley of Mexico, well, they were enslaved/City gone and left in ruins, they cry bitter tears in another world/But here in this world, my daughter, they have you”)
Putin, Randy Newman (The Mediterranean/Now there’s a resort worth fighting for/If only the Greeks or the Turks/Would start to sniff around/Oh, I’d bring the hammer down/So quick their woolly heads would spin/Woolly head, woolly head, woolly head/Oh, wait a minute, even better/What if the Kurds got in the way?/Hey, Kurds and way, curds and whey/Sometimes a people/Is greater than their leader/Germany, Kentucky, and France/Sometimes a leader/Towers over his country/One shot at glory/They don’t get a second chance)
Night Comes On, Leonard Cohen (We were fighting in Egypt when they signed this agreement/That nobody else had to die/There was this terrible sound, my father went down/With a terrible wound in his side/He said, “Try to go on, take my books, take my gun/Remember, my son, how they lied”/And the night comes on, it’s very calm/I’d like to pretend that my father was wrong/But you don’t want to lie, not to the young)
Some big guns – and some extensive use of telling quotation. Thanks, Rick.
So many songs, and the only mention of either Scotland or Ireland is that passing mention of the headless Roland’s itinerary. Not even anything from Dave Nadel’s Celtic folk shelves. And let’s not have any Sassenach technicalities about the United Kingdom being the actual country.
Just for starters:
Song for Ireland – Mary Black and just about everybody else (John McAuslan has a ripper version)
Galway Bay (“If you ever go across the sea to Ireland”- by their parents
Give Ireland Back to the Irish – Paul McCartney & Wings
My Ain Folk (At hame in dear old Scotland wi’ my ain folk) – Fr Sydney MacEwan
I Hate Scotland – Ballboy
Curfew – Stranglers
(The enemy has cut down all the power
London south of the Thames is invaded
Westminster is razed down to the ground
The government has fled
The government has fled
The government has fled to Scotland today)
Thanks for your songs mentioning Scotland and Ireland. (Note: I included ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’ not long back in this thread.) I’m sure your inclusions in this songlist will rouse others to include more numbers in a similar vein. I’ll put in ‘Victoria’ by The Grehan Sisters, from their 1967 album On the Galtymore Mountains. ‘Victoria’ begins: ‘The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown / When up spoke Irish Cheddar and they both came tumbling down…’
The thanks in my comment immediately above go to Andrew G, of course.
This world tour of song finds me back in Italy with Bob as my trusty companion:
Down The Highway (off Freewheelin’ ’63 ~ Bob grieving for Suze)
Yes, the ocean took my baby
My baby took my heart from me
She packed it all up in a suitcase
Lord, she took it away to Italy, Italy
Idiot Wind (off Blood On The Tracks ’75 ~ something fanciful from deep inside Bob’s mind)
‘They say I shot a man named Gray
And took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks
And when she died it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky’
I like the ‘world tour of song’ label for this thread, Karl. Thank you for your Dylan double – ‘Idiot Wind’ is certainly one of those multi-theme songs, isn’t it? It has come up quite a few times in our long-running themed series.
And yet another Warren Zevon song referencing a country: ‘Werewolves of London’, of course. It begins: ‘I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand…’
As to Andrew Gaylard’s point may I suggest the Springsteen song, American Land. While not specifically about Ireland, they are included in thia all encompassing song about immigrants building America.
The McNicholas, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below
They died building the railroads, they worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they’re still dying now
Their hands that built the country we’re always trying to keep out
It is worth also noting from SpringsteenLyrics.com a little more info about the song when Bruce has performed it live: Depending on the European country he’s performing in, Springsteen often replaced “Germans” in the fourth verse by “Austrians”, “British”, “Danish”, “Dutch”, “Finnish”, “French”, “Norwegians”, “Scots”, “Spanish”, “Swedes”, “Swiss”… See the live 28 Jun 2009 version for an example. During the 28 Mar 2008 show in Portland, OR, there were women in the pit that wore shirts that said “Lesbians [heart] Bruce”, so he replaced “Germans” by “lesbians”. During the Glastonbury festival in England on 27 Jun 2009, he sang “The Blacks, Italians, the English, the Germans and the Jews”.
Cheers
Highly interesting material about ‘American Land’ – thanks, Rick. The lyrics of this song have a touch of Walt Whitman about them, especially his poetic epic, Leaves of Grass, which Bruce would be very familiar with.
And …
Dear Old Donegal, Bing Crosby
Arthur McBride, Paul Brady
Black Velvet Band, The Dubliners
The Reason I Left Mullingar, The Fureys
Cowboy Song, Thin Lizzy
The Bruce song is taken from “HE LIES IN THE AMERICAN LAND , a poem written by immigrant steelworker Andrew Kovaly in 1905 or something, and later set to music by Pete Seeger who originally released it on his 1956 album American Industrial Ballads”. Bruce uses the first verse of Kovaly’s poem then elaborates in true Springers fashion. And yes, he has talked about Whitman’s poems.
I stand embarrassed Andrew Gaylard. I was so centred on 60s protest songs that I forgot to post on Scotland and Ireland. So here are a few that have not been mentioned yet.
Parcel of Rogues – written by Robert Burns and recorded by Ewan MacColl and loads of others including
Steeleye Span.
“Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory,
Fareweel ev’n to the Scottish name,
Sae fam’d in martial story.
Now Sark rins o’er the Solway sands,
And Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England’s province stands –
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.”
Loch Lomond – Traditional, possibly written shortly after the 1745 rebellion.
“O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.”
The Roving Dies Hard – The Battlefield Band (although the Adelaide folk band Colcannon did a terrific version of this song) You have to wait till the end of the song for the word “Scotland” but you get a lot of other place names before that.
“My name’s John Mackenzie, I’m a master-at-arms
I carry my sword and my shield on my shoulder
I’ve fought every fight from the Don to the Danube
None braver, none better, none bolder
I’ve stood with Montrose and against him
I’ve battled with Swedes and with Danes
And I’ve carried the standard of many’s the army
Through many’s the bloody campaign
But now as I sit in the firelight it seems
There’s a distant horizon to the sword buckle’s gleam
Till a pull at the wine brings an old soldier’s dream from afar
For the rovin’ dies hard
I’m Calum McLean, I’m a trapper to trade
And it’s forty long years since I saw Tobermory
Through Canada’s forests I’ve carried my blade
And its pine trees could tell you my story
Now my wandering days they are over
But I’m thankful to still be alive
For I’ve many’s the kinsman who died in the hulks
At the end of the bold forty-five
I’ve an Indian lass now, I’ll never deceive her
But there’s nights when I’d up with my gun and I’d leave her
For the land where the bear and the fox and the beaver are lord
For the rovin’ dies hard
My name’s Robert Johnston, I’m a man of the cloth
And I’ll carry my Bible as long as I’m breathing
I’ve preached the Lord’s Gospel from Shanghai to Glasgow
Where’er He saw fit to make heathens
But now the Kirk’s calling me homewards
It’s the manse and the elders for me
But the sins of the Session will no’ be so far
From the sins of the South China Seas
And perhaps it’s the voice of the Devil I’ve heard
For it speaks of the clipper ships flying like birds
Till a man’s only comfort is Scripture and the word of the Lord
For the rovin’ dies hard
My name’s Willie Campbell, I’m a ship’s engineer
And I know every berth between Lisbon and Largo
I’ve sweated more diesel in thirty-five years
Than a big tanker takes for a cargo
Of the good times I’ve always had plenty
When the whisky and the women were wild
And there’s many’s the wean wi’ the red locks o’ the Campbells
Who’s ne’er seen the coast of Argyll
But now as the freighters unload on the quay
The sound of the engines is calling to me
And it sings me a song of the sun and the sea and the stars
For the rovin’ dies hard
I’ve tuned up my fiddle, and I’ve rosined my bow
And I’ve sung of the clans and the clear crystal fountains
I can tell you the road and the miles frae Dundee
To the back of Alaska’s wild mountains
And when my travelling days they are over
And the next of the rovers has come
He’ll take all my songs and he’ll sing them again
To the beat of a different drum
And if ever I’m asked why the Scots are beguiled
I’ll lift up my glass in a health, and I’ll smile
And I’ll tell them that fortune’s dealt Scotland the wildest of cards
For the rovin’ dies hard”
Caladonia was the Roman name for Scotland. The next two songs from the late 20th Century refer to Caledonia.
Caladonia – Dougie Maclean
“I don’t know if you can see
the changes that have come over me
in these last few days I’ve been afraid
that I might drift away
so I’ve been telling old stories, singing songs
that make me think about where I came from
and that’s the reason why I seem
so far away today
ah but let me tell you that I love you
and I think about you all the time
Caledonia you’re calling me and now I’m going home
but if I should become a stranger
you know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia’s been everything I’ve ever had”
Destitution Road – Alistair Hulett (This is a song about the Highland Clearances)
“In the Year Of The Sheep and the burnin’ time
They cut our young men in their prime
The old Scots way was a hangin’ crime
For the Gaels of Caledonia
There’s a den for the fox, a hedge for the hare
A nest in the tree for the birds of the air
But in a’ Scotland there’s no place there for the Gaels of Caledonia”
And now for some Irish songs
The Foggy Dew – lyrics by Charles O’Neill. A song about the Easter Week uprising in1916. I first heard it sung by Brian Mooney at Frank Traynor’s folk club in 1964 but there are many recordings of the song. Probably the best known nowadays would be by Sinead O’Connor with The Chieftains.
“Right proudly high in Dublin town
Hung they out a flag of war
‘Twas better to die ‘neath that Irish sky
Than at Sulva or Sud-El-Bar
And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through
While Brittania’s Huns with their long range guns
Sailed in through the foggy dew”
The Ballad of Roddy McCorley – written by Ethna Carbery. I also first heard this from Brian Mooney but most folk fans would know it from the Dubliners or the Clancy Brothers.
1
“Oh, see the fleet-foot hosts of men who speed with faces wan,
From farmstead and from thresher’s cot along the banks of Ban.
They come with vengeance in their eyes; too late, too late are they,
For young Roddy McCorley goes to die on the bridge of Toome today.
2.
Oh Ireland, Mother Ireland, you love them still the best,
The fearless brave who fighting fall upon your hapless breast.
But never a one of all your dead more bravely fell in fray,
Than he who marches to his fate on the bridge of Toome today.
3.
Up the narrow street he stepped, so smiling, proud and young,
About the hemp-rope on his neck, the golden ringlets clung;
There’s ne’er a tear in his blue eyes, fearless and brave are they,
As young Roddy McCorley goes to die on the bridge of Toome today.”
The Wearing of the Green – very old song lots of singers have recorded it.
“Oh Paddy, dear, and did you hear the news that’s going round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground
Saint Patrick’s Day no more we’ll keep; his colours can’t be seen
For they’re hanging men and women for the wearing of the green
I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand
He said “How’s dear old Ireland and how does she stand?”
She’s the most distressful country that you have ever seen
For they’re hanging men and women for the wearing of the green
For the wearing of the green, for the wearing of the green
They’re hanging men and women for the wearing of the green”
The Patriot Game – Dominic Behan
“[Verse 1]
Come all you young rebels, and list’ while I sing
For love of one’s land is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the patriot game
[Verse 5]
This Ireland of mine has for long been half-free
Six counties are under John Bull’s monarchy
And still de Valera is greatly to blame
For shirking his part in the patriot game”
and here is a song mentioning Ireland that is not political.
The Girl I left Behind – Andy Irvine
“There was a rich old farmer lived in the country nigh
He had one only daughter on her I cast my eye
She was so tall and slender so delicate and so fair
No other girl in the neighbourhood with her I could compare
I asked if it made any difference if I crossed over the main
She says it makes no difference if you’ll come back again
She promised she’d be true to me until death’s parting tim?
So we kissed shook hands and parted and I l?ft my girl behind
Straightway I sailed from old Ireland to Glasgow I did go
Where the work and money was plentiful and the whiskey it did flow
Where the work and money was plentiful and the girls all treated me kind
But the girl I left behind me was always on my mind
One day as I went walking down by the public square
The mail boat had arrived and the postman met me there
He handed me a letter which gave me to understand
That the girl I left behind me was married to another man”
Thanks, Rick for the Irish connected songs and the further comments about Bruce and Walt Whitman. As you may know, Leaves of Grass was a landmark of American literature and a volume of poetry by Whitman originally published in 1855 that underwent many editions of additions of new poems and revisions throughout his lifetime. The final edition was the so-called the ‘Deathbed Edition’ published in the early 1890s, which I feel is among the great works of Western literature. The key poem in Leaves of Grass is the epic titled ‘Song of Myself’, a poem about America and its people, which runs to over fifty pages in one edition I have.
I’m as certain as I can be that a poet like Andrew Kovaly would have read Whitman or poetry by those immediately influenced by him.
Wonderful, informative information and song choices associated with Scottish and Irish songs, Dave. Great that you ‘responded to the call’ for such material in such a major way.
Here’s another relevant song, ‘On the Galtymore Mountains’, from my old favourites, the Irish trio The Grehan Sisters. The song, which I know from the 1967 album of the same name, is worth quoting in full:
‘On the Galtymore Mountains, so far, far away
I will tell you a story that happened one day
It’s about a young colleen [cailín?], her age was sixteen
And she carried a banner, white, orange and green.
A bold English bobby by chance passed that way
Saying “Who is the maid with the banner so gay?”
With a laugh and a sneer he got off his machine
Determined to capture the flag of Sinn Fein.
“O give me that banner”, the bold bobby cried,
“Give me that banner, and do what is right.
Give me that banner, and do not be mean,
For I must have that emblem, the flag of Sinn Fein.”
“I’ll not give you that banner”, the young maiden cried
“Till your blood and my blood its colours have dyed.
For I have here a rifle and that’s nothing mean,
And ’tis proudly I’ll die for the flag of Sinn Fein”.
The peeler’s red face turned white as the snow
He mounted his cycle and started to go,
Saying “What is the use, when a maid of sixteen
Would die for her colours, white, orange and green?”
That very same day in sweet Tipperary town
That gallant young girl from the Galtees come down.
Her poor heart was torn with anguish and pain
For that very same day Mick Keane died for Sinn Fein.
Now you young men and maidens from Erin’s green shore
Raise a cheer for the maid from the proud Galtee Mor,
And please keep on fighting the cause of Sinn Fein
Till we make dear old Ireland a Republic again.’
(The song exists in various versions, with its exact origins unknown, according to what I’ve discovered.)
My world tour of song with Bob takes us to:
Sara (off the 1976 Desire album):
‘Sleeping in the woods by a fire in the night
Drinking white rum in a Portugal bar’
Glad that with regard to Bob’s songs, the old saying ‘what happens on tour stays on tour’ doesn’t apply, and we get to know about your world tour of songs with Bob. Thanks, Karl.
And going back to my most recent response to Dave N, my initial remark about ‘informative information’ was, I realise, tautological – the word informative wasn’t needed here! We all make the occasional error, don’t we?
Belatedly, also, congrats to all concerned in relation to reaching our century of comments. Fine work!
Mexico, here I go!
El Paso, Marty Robbins (Out in the West Texas town of El Paso/I fell in love with a Mexican girl/Nighttime would find me in Rosa’s Cantina/Music would play and Feleena would whirl)
Cocaine Blues, Johnny Cash (Early one morning while making the rounds/I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down/Went right home and I went to bed/I stuck that loving 44 beneath my head/Got up next morning and I grabbed that gun/Took a shot of cocaine and away I run/Made a good run but run too slow/They overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico)
Seashores of Old Mexico, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard (Two Mexican farmers en route to a town I can’t say/Let me ride on the back of a flatbed half-loaded with hay/Down through Durango, Colima, Almiera/Then into Manzanillos/Where I slept in the sunshine on the seashores of old Mexico)
Mercenary Song, Steve Earle (And we’re bound for the border/We’re soldiers of fortune/And we’ll fight for no country/But we’ll die for good pay/Under the flag of of the greenback dollar/Or the peso down Mexico way)
Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, Ian Dury and the Blockheads (In the deserts of Sudan/And the gardens of Japan/From Milan to Yucatán/Every womans, every man/Hit me with your rhythm stick/Hit me! Hit me!/Je t’adore, ich liebe dich/Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!)
Hey KD – just off the Bob bandwagon for a moment as another multi country song came to me & I believe (surprisingly) it has not been listed above. This one is right up there with Dylan’s Union Sundown
Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire (1989)
Red China
North Korea
South Korea
England
Lebanon
Belgians
Congo
British (politician sex)
Palestine (maybe one day it will recognised as a country)
Iran
Russians
Afghanistan
This is the first time I have quoted Tom Lehrer since his death last. A song about nuclear proliferation from 1965
Whose Next?
“One of the big news items of the past year concerned the fact that China, which we call Red China, exploded a nuclear bomb, which we called a device. Then Indonesia announced that it was gonna have one soon, and proliferation became the word of the day. Here’s a song about that.
First we got the bomb and that was good,
‘Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that’s O.K.,
‘Cause the balance of power’s maintained that way!
Who’s next?
France got the bomb, but don’t you grieve,
‘Cause they’re on our side (I believe).
China got the bomb, but have no fears
They can’t wipe us out for at least five years!
Who’s next?
Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that’s right:
One for the black and one for the white!
Who’s next?
Egypt’s gonna get one, too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel’s getting tense,
Wants one in self defense.
“The Lord’s our shepherd, ” says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who’s next?
Luxembourg is next to go
And, who knows, maybe Monaco.
We’ll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Who’s next, who’s next, who’s next?”
that should read “since his death last month.
Thoroughly enjoyed the Mexico flavour of your latest selections, Rick; so much so that I felt like doing a ‘Mexican Hat Dance’!
Thanks, Karl. ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ is a great pick up.
Hi Dave – your Tom Lehrer song is a fine inclusion in our songlist. Thank you.
Here’s an mostly unknown Bob Dylan/Carl Perkins co-write that features in my latest Dylan cover songs article:
Champaign Illinois (from Carl’s 1969 On Top album)
‘I got a woman in Morocco
I got a woman in Spain
Woman that’s done stole my heart
She lives up in Champaign
Thanks for ‘Champaign Illinois’, Karl – this Dylan / Perkins number was certainly unknown to me.
I’ll throw on McCartney’s ‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt’, released in 1975 on Wings’ Venus and Mars album. As well as Egypt, Spain and the Irish sea are mentioned in the lyrics. (The songwriters are officially listed as Paul and Linda McCartney for this number.)
Oops, immediately above should commence ‘I’ll throw in McCartney’s ‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt …’
While I’m at it, I’ll also put forward ‘Marseilles’ by The Angels, released in 1978, which mentions the ‘south of France’, ‘French cigars’ and ‘French’ as a language. Then there’s also ‘Moonlighting’ a song co-written and released by Leo Sayer in 1975 – it mentions both ‘French kisses’ and ‘French cigarettes’.
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos, Deportees, Woody Guthrie (The crops are all in and the peaches are rott’ning/The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;/They’re flying ’em back to the Mexican border/To pay all their money to wade back again … The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon/A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills/Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?/The radio says, “They are just deportees”)
Willin’, Little Feat (Smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico/Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico/And I’m still/And I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah/Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made/Driven the back roads, so I wouldn’t get weighed/And if you give me … weed, whites, and wine/And you show me a sign/I’ll be willin’/To be movin’)
Seven Spanish Angels, Ray Charles and Willie Nelson (There were seven Spanish angels/At the altar of the sun/They were praying for the lovers/In the valley of the gun/When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared/There was thunder from the throne/And seven Spanish angels/Took another angel home)
Mexican Bands, Merle Haggard (And I love the wave of the trumpets/And the smell of a Mexican rose/Can almost see her sombrero/The glitter and cut of her clothes/And I love old Mexican music/Agave makes me dance on my hands/No savvy amigo, but I love the fandango/And listening to old Mexican bands)
South Coast of Texas, Guy Clark (The shrimpers and their ladies are out in the beer joints/Drinking ’em down ‘fore they sail with the dawn/They’re bound for the Mexican Bay of Campeche/And the deckhands are singing “Adios Jole Blon”)
Continuing on your Mexican sub-theme, I see, Rick. Fine stuff!
The Mexican influence upon USA music is certainly, broadly speaking, a fascinating topic.
And I’ll toss Jackson Browne’s ”Lawyers in Love’ into the mix. In it, America, the Russians, and the USSR are specifically mentioned.
The Karl & Bob world tour of song bandwagon continues to rattle along – with all the recent talk of ambassadors being asked to ‘leave’, we came across these lyrics from 1979’s Slow Train album:
Gotta Serve Somebody
‘You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
………..But you’re gonna have to serve somebody’
So glad the bandwagon is still rattlin’ along, Karl. Thanks for ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’.
I’ll continue my journey though the Galtymore Mountains (LP) with The Grehan Sisters: ‘Lonely Banna Strand’. It’s a plangent and beautiful song, based on part of the story of Sir Roger Casement.
Lonely Banna Strand
Twas on Good Friday morning, all in the month of May,
A German ship was lying there, beyond there in the Bay,
With twenty thousand rifles all ready for to land,
But no answering signal came from the lonely Banna Strand.
A motorcar was dashing through the early morning gloom
A sudden crash, and in the sea they went to meet their doom
Two Irish lads lay dying there just like their hopes so grand
They could not give the signal now on lonely Banna Strand.
“No signal answers from the shore”, Sir Roger sadly said,
“No comrades here to welcome me: alas, they must be dead,
But I must do my duty and so I mean to land.”
So in a boat he pulled ashore on lonely Banna Strand.
The R.I.C. were hunting for Sir Roger high and low.
They found him at McKenna’s fort: Said they “You are our foe”.
Said he, “I’m Roger Casement, I came to Ireland,
To try and free my countrymen on lonely Banna Strand.”
They took Sir Roger prisoner, and they sailed for London town,
And in the Tower they named him a traitor to the Crown.
Said he, “I am no traitor”, but his trial he had to stand,
For bringing German rifles to lonely Banna Strand.
‘Twas in an English prison that they led him to his death,
“I’m dying for my country”, he said with his last breath,
He’s buried in a prison yard, far from his native land,
And the wild waves sing his requiem on the lonely Banna Strand.
They took Sir Roger home again in the year of ’65,
And with his comrades of ’16 in peace and tranquil lies.
His last wishes have been fulfilled: he’s home in Ireland,
And the waves will roll in peace again on lonely Banna Strand
The world of song bandwagon rolls on ¬ Bob’s companionship has been great and full of themed references….although we did have a difficult discussion about current events and this song from his 1983 Infidels album
Neighbourhood Bully
‘Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully’
Thanks for ‘Neighbourhood Bully’, Karl. Keep that world of song bandwagon, a-rollin’!
I don’t recall any specifically Wales-centric songs in our list so far, so I thought I’d better put the song and military march ‘Men of Harlech’ into the mix. The song exists in numerous versions, but in the ones I’ve read / heard the traditional and poetic name of Wales, Cambria, is specifically mentioned.
Perhaps the finest rendition of ‘Men of Harlech’ I’ve heard was by a three-piece Cornish folk/rock group who performed it at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre as part of a National Celtic Festival program, circa 1990. If anyone can suggest who this band might have been, please let me know. I have no idea of their name.
Andorra – Pete Seeger (lyics by Malvina Reynolds who also wrote Seeger’s “Little Boxes” and The Seekers’ Morningtown Ride)
“I want to go to Andorra, Andorra, Andorra,
I want to go to Andorra, it’s a place I adore,
They spent four dollars and ninety cents
On armaments and their defense,
Did you ever hear of such confidence?
Andorra, hip hurrah!
In the mountains of the Pyrenees
There’s an independent state,
Its population five thousand souls,
And I think they’re simply great.
One hundred and seventy square miles big
And it’s awf’lly dear to me.
Spends less than five dollars on armaments,
And this I’ve got to see.
(Chorus)
It’s governed by a council,
All gentle souls and wise,
They’ve only five dollars for armaments
And the rest for cakes and pies;
They didn’t invest in a tommy gun
Or a plane to sweep the sky,
But they bought some blanks for their cap pistols
To shoot on their Fourth of July.”
(Chorus)
Jacques and Gilles – Kate and Anna McGarrigle
(Verses 1 and 2)
“Jacques et Gilles work at the mill
That stands beside the water
Could be Lowell, could be Lawrence
Or Nashua, New Hampshire
Jacques et Gilles, they hate the mill
But they’ve too many sons and daughters
The pay’s no good and they miss the woods
So they go and cut the lumber in Maine
(Verses 11 and 12)
“And the old man smells of whisky-blanc
Of tobacco and fine leather
And all the boys Ti-Pit, Ti-Jean, Ti-Guy, Ti-Gus
Have brand new suits
And all the girls new coats and hats
And Madame Aubry a gorgeous hat of melton
With three fine feathers
And we’re goin’ home to Canada
To La Beauce, our beautiful country
We’ll take the new train from Nashua
Our pockets filled with American money”
Canadian Railroad Trilogy – Gordon Lightfoot
Pacifica – Graeme Connors.
“Captain Bligh sailed by in 1789
Between Viti and Vanua Levu
Too blinded by his rage to see the beauty of those golden shores
Blinded by his rage to find a hangman’s noose in Dutch Timor
The “Resolution” sailed in 1791
From Tahiti on a westward wind
In search of “Bounty” mutineers the schooner master and his crew
Dropped anchor for a while at the enchanted isle of Matuku
And there they stayed and there they played
Woh Pacifica
The gentle heart yearns for thee
Woh Pacifica
Home is the sailor home from sea
The “Isabella” sailed in 1871
From Malaita and Guadalcanal
Forty-four kanakas came recruited as plantation hands
Their sweat and blood and tears would build the canfields of North Queensland
And to this day their children say
Woh Pacifica
The gentle heart yearns for thee
Woh Pacifica
Home is the sailor home from sea
Tusitala set his hopeless sail too late
Under a wide and starry sky
Robert Louis Stevenson relieved of all his worldly ills
Sailed into that good long night from high up in the Samoan Hills
And from his grave he tells his tales
Woh Pacifica
The gentle heart yearns for thee
Woh Pacifica
Home is the sailor home from sea
Samoa and Tahiti are probably the only places named that are now countries but West Timor would have been known as Dutch Timor in 1789 (even if it was technically administered from Batavia) The Solomon Islands were not a British Protectorate until 1893 so Malaita and Guadalcanal may have been considered as separate entities as might the colony of Queensland.
Thank you, Dave – your latest material is as interesting and erudite as ever.
Happy Mondays Monday KD!
The world of song bandwagon is chugging along on our last litre of biofuel (Neil Young style) and about to switch to solar power to bring it all back home.
Clean Cut Kid – off the 1984 Empire Burlesque album
‘He bought the American dream but it put him in debt
The only game he could play was Russian roulette’
‘He was wearing boxing gloves, took a dive one day
Off the Golden Gate Bridge into China Bay’.
Happy Monday to you, too, Karl. Thanks for ‘Clean Cut Kid’.
I have a bit more in the tank, I feel, and will add a few more to our songlist within the next few days.
How about, for a start, the anti-war song ‘I Wish’ by Rose Tattoo, which begins ‘ I met a man in Ireland / drinkin’ in a bar…’
I should add that as well as Ireland (and Irish), ‘I Wish’ also mentions Poland, Afghanistan and El Salvador.
How about a classic 60’s Dylan in this world tour of song?
I Want You
‘Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit he
Spoke to me, I took his flute
No, I wasn’t very cute to him, was I?’
Thanks for ‘I Want You ‘, Karl. Great to see the Bob and Karl express still on the tracks!
Yes KD – Bob & I are still on the tracks – a bit bloody but undeterred in our quest to circumnavigate planet Earth on our world tour of song. We finish off the Asian leg of the tour with a rare stopover in Vietnam. Bob confessed to me that this was not one of his finest songwriting endeavours.
Legionnaire’s Disease – unreleased song written in 1978 – used for soundchecks during the tour of Japan/Aust/NZ Feb-Apr 78.
‘Granddad fought in a revolutionary war, father in the War of 1812
Uncle fought in Vietnam and then he fought a war all by himself
But whatever it was, it came out of the trees
Oh, that Legionnaire’s disease’
Thanks for ‘Legionnaire’s Disease’, Karl. What encyclopedic knowledge to be able to note that this unreleased song was used for soundchecks in 1978!
Here’s one from the archives, so to speak: Woody Guthrie’s ‘The Sinking of the Reuben James’ from 1942 – it mentions the ‘cold Iceland shore’ close to where this American ship went down
Aficionados might recognise that the melody from ‘Wildwood Flower, a nineteenth century folk song made famous by the Carter family, was used by Guthrie to accompany the lyrics he wrote for the ‘Reuben James’ number.
Hi KD
I only learnt about ‘Legionnaires Disease’ & soundchecks about 2 weeks ago when I was doing prep for a future Dylan Cover songs article involving Danish singers & bands. These amazing connections make doing the research most fulfilling.
Anyway, back to the world tour of song….even at 84, Bob is travelin’ well with lots of stories to tell – if only I could read his mind….
We depart Asia and set sail across the peaceful ocean for South America. around Cape Horn and park our ship at Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires Province. The only reason we are here is because of a rhyme….
Angelina – a 1981 outtake to the Shot Of Love album
‘Oh, Angelina
There’s a black Mercedes rolling through the combat zone
Your servants are half-dead, you’re down to the bone
Tell me, tall men, where would you like to be overthrown?
In Jerusalem or Argentina?’
Elsewhere in the song, Angelina is rhymed to:
concertina, hyena, subpoena, arena.
When I quizzed Bob on the rhyming scheme he simply referred me to Springsteen’s ‘Blinded By The Light’ – checkmate/case closed!
Thanks for ‘Angelina’, Karl, and the (as always) highly interesting comments.
And who could forget what is undoubtedly one of England’s most iconic songs, ‘Jerusalem’, utilising William Blake’s poem written in 1804, and a melody by Sir Hubert Parry in 1917? Famous lines referring specifically to England are most relevant in this context.
I thought I had finished on this thread, but I couldn’t resist adding to the large number of songs about Mexico
Tequila Sunset – Ralph McTell
“Takes a glass of Tequila to raise up my spirits
When I get down I’m drinking them two at a time
‘Til I swear that I feel like a poor drowning sailor
Salt on my lips and my tongue tastes of lime.
Tequila sunset, Tijuana sunrise
Let’s put the light back in each other’s eyes
And maybe tomorrow if the wheels can roll
We can take the road down south, babe,
Get to Mexico.”
Thanks, Dave, for McTell’s ‘Tequila Sunset’.
The large number of ‘Mexico songs’ has been one of the fine things about this theme.
I expect to put forward a new theme on Friday 12 September.
Happy Friday KD ~ I thought I might take a break from Bob and have a quick squizz into my own anthology…..here is what I found on my ‘Life & Love’ album:
Monkey Mountain Road
‘I’m gonna scuba dive the Great Blue Hole off the Belize Coast’
Looking For An Answer
‘I’m looking for an answer I can pass onto my son
Maybe in Venezuela in the waters off the Amazon’
Happy Friday, Karl.
Thanks for your Dubravs duo – specifically in terms of our theme, I thought Belize was a particularly good ‘get’.
Not sure if we have had any Jimmy Buffett yet. I think I put one forward earlier but I can’t remember.
Anyways, let’s go:
Havana Day Dreamin’ mentions Ecuador and Mexico
Son of a Son of a Sailor mentions Trinidad
Manana mentions the United States
Volcano mentions Mexico
He Went to Paris mentions England
Thanks for the Jimmy Buffet numbers, Rick. I just had a good look through our songlist for this theme and couldn’t find any earlier Buffet numbers put forward by you – maybe you were thinking of an earlier theme.
Good Saturday morning KD. You must be smiling like a Cheshire after last nights win by the Cats.
The world of song tour is on its last leg – heading back to Bob’s homeland via the Panama canal:
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Mem[his Blues Again (1966 – Blonde On Blonde album)
‘Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well’
‘When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
’Neath her Panamanian moon’
Black Diamond Bay (1976 – Desire album)
‘Up on the white veranda
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat’
‘I was sitting home alone one night in L.A.
Watching old Cronkite on the seven o’clock news
It seems there was an earthquake that
Left nothing but a Panama hat
And a pair of old Greek shoes’
Another 150 beckons…….
Good Saturday morning in return, Karl. Yes, very happy about the Cats’ win – they’re looking very good at the right end of the season.
Thanks for your latest Dylan songs – you’ve certainly been on a fine tour with the great man.
One final stop on the world tour of song before we return to where it all started….’Back In The USSA[
Who Killed Davey Moore (1963 outtake)
‘Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the man whose fists
Laid him low in a cloud of mist
Who came here from Cuba’s door
Where boxing ain’t allowed no more
“I hit him, yes, it’s true
But that’s what I am paid to do’
Thanks for ‘Who Killed Davey Moore’, Karl.
And we’ve now hit the 150 mark. Well done to all concerned!
And here’s an obscure one, ‘Faraway Places’, a good song by Oz new wave band, Serious Young Insects, released in 1982. The song mentions England, Iraq and Tibet.
Great call KD, which reminds me, has the song, One Perfect Day by Little Heroes been put forward? If not, count it in. btw, band named after a line from the Springsteen song, Incident on 57th Street.
Now, back down to Mexico:
Adios Mexico, Texas Tornadoes – and if you don’t know this band, get yer listening ears on, they are superb. From Wikipedia: American Tejano supergroup, composed of some of country music’s biggest artists who modernized the Tex-Mex style including Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm, and Freddy Fender.
(I left a little girl up in San Antone/Then she started feelin’ alone/Think I love her/It’s adios Mexico)
Don’t Drink the Water, Brad Paisley (Corona or Tecate/My old friend Jose/I ain’t going down to Mexico/To drink the water anyway/On this trip, anything I sip/Had better have a kick and a burn/Strong enough to get you off my mind/Pickle my liver and a little grub o’ worm/Here we go)
Buffalo Skinners, Woody Guthrie’s version of a traditional American song (Got all full of stickers/From the cactus that did not grow/And the outlaws watching/To pick us off in the hills of Mexico)
Road to Ensenada, Lyle Lovett (As I lay sick and broken/Viva Mexico/My eyes just won’t stay open/And I dream a dream of home/I dream a dream of home)
In 1969 The Kinks released a concept album titled Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) Both these songs are from the album.
Victoria – The Kinks
“Canada to India
Australia to Cornwall
Singapore to Hong Kong
From the West to the East
From the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all”
Australia – The Kinks
“Opportunities are available in all walks of life in Australia
So if you’re young and if you’re healthy
Why not get a boat and come to Australia
Australia, the chance of a lifetime
Australia, you get what you work for
Nobody has to be any better than what they want to be
Australia, no class distinction
Australia, no drug addiction
Nobody’s got a chip on their shoulder
We’ll surf like they do in the U.S.A.
We’ll fly down to Sydney for our holiday
On sunny Christmas Day
Australia, Australia
Thanks, Rick, for ‘One Perfect Day’, which, as far as I can see, hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Thank you, also, for your latest Mexico songs – as I’ve indicated before, this has been a really interesting sub-theme in the overall context of our countries songlist.
Thank you for that fine song, ‘Victoria’, Dave.
The Kinks’ ‘Australia’ was put forward right at the beginning of this songlist by Col Ritchie; that noted, your inclusion of some lyrics adds to the picture in terms of the song.
Another week in the life rolls around.
Bob has enjoyed the world tour of song and is glad to leave the theme behind with just one more>>>>
Slow Train (1979)
‘All that foreign oil controlling American soil
Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed
Sheiks walkin’ around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings
Deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend’
No doubt, Bob will return – refreshed – when the next song theme rolls around.
Thanks for ‘Slow Train’, Karl – the Bob and Karl world tour of song has been an excellent one!
I expect to post the next theme this coming Friday, 12 September.
‘Breakfast In America’ by Supertramp….was posted earlier in the theme.
However, I add it again to pay tribute to one of my favourite 70’s bands and to pay homage to Rick Davies ~ founder, vocalist & keyboardist for Supertramp ~ who died a few days ago.
A timely re-inclusion – thanks, Karl.
A Song for Barcelona, Jackson Browne, and if you’re still giving him a go, this is from his 2021 album and it isn’t too bad (They come from Ireland, they come from Africa/They come from the U.S., they come from Canada/They come from Norway, they come from China/They come from Uruguay and from Bulgaria/They come for pleasure/They come for freedom/For the chance encounter/Or the revelation/They come for business/Or for adventure/They fall in love with the information/About the world and about each other/They dream and when they wake up/They’re not in Spain anymore)
Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea, Passenger (I wanna lay by a lake in Norway, I/I wanna walk through Swedish fields of green/I wanna see the forests of Finland, I/I wanna sail on a boat on the Baltic sea
/I wanna feel a Russian winter, I/I wanna go to my Polish grandmother’s home/I wanna see Hungarian lanterns, I/I wanna walk on a road that leads to Rome) He also mentions Scotland, Ireland and Spain :)
Make America Great Again, Pussy Riot, and if you don’t know this Russian punk band get on it. (Did your mama come from Mexico/Papa come from Palestine/Sneaking all through Syria/Crossing all the border lines/Let other people in/Listen to your women/Stop killing black children/Make America Great Again)
Lebanon, Innocent Bystanders, a Perth band for the 80s, great live. They had another song, might be called Writing Home, about a soldier in the Korean war, that mentions Southy Korea.
Cheers
Thank you, Rick for your latest (interesting and eclectic) bunch of songs.
Here’s a Richard Thompson special:
From Galway To Gracelands (1993)
‘And silver wings carried her
Over the sea
From the west coast of Ireland
To West Tennessee
To be with her sweetheart,
Oh she left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king’
Thanks, Karl – there’s life in this theme yet!
A bit left field, but I was doing some ‘homework’ on Paul Simon – which led me to Art Garfunkel – which led me to Art’s 1988 ‘Lefty’ album – one I have never listened to, apart from just listening to the song:
The King Of Tonga
I would say the song has little merit other than as an adding a country (kingdom) tor it’s first and probably only mention of this theme.
PS – after a good nights sleep, I’ll be ready for another music theme…..cheers!
Thanks, Karl, for the ‘Tonga song’.
Yep, the new theme will be up tomorrow.