The shoemaker’s apprentice is straight off to work,
When his school day is over and done,
No matter how long the lesson, he’ll never be late,
Just look at that little boy run.
They call him Jesse,
Too young to be singinging the blues
Lord let me run in Jesse Owen’s shows.
Gentleman Jesse’s gonna run for the world,
He’s got a name no-one will ever forget,
No black man’s burden gonna weigh him down,
The weight of 4 gold medals won’t break no sweat.
Cried the Africans, the Gypsies and Jews
The gods on Olympus can’t believe their eyes,
Everybody wants to shake his hand,
And feel the power of his winning ways
Except for one angry man on the stand (He turned his back on…)
He went back to his room with his views.
Jesse’s no-one’s puppet and nobody’s pet,
The man’s got a family to feed,
He was the first one to take to the track with the name
That Mr Adidas wrote on his heels (And I don’t blame…)
He’s a winner that we’ll never lose. When will his homeland pay him his dues?
When his school day is over and done,
No matter how long the lesson, he’ll never be late,
Just look at that little boy run.
They call him Jesse,
Too young to be singinging the blues
Lord let me run in Jesse Owen’s shows.
Gentleman Jesse’s gonna run for the world,
He’s got a name no-one will ever forget,
No black man’s burden gonna weigh him down,
The weight of 4 gold medals won’t break no sweat.
Cried the Africans, the Gypsies and Jews
The gods on Olympus can’t believe their eyes,
Everybody wants to shake his hand,
And feel the power of his winning ways
Except for one angry man on the stand (He turned his back on…)
He went back to his room with his views.
Jesse’s no-one’s puppet and nobody’s pet,
The man’s got a family to feed,
He was the first one to take to the track with the name
That Mr Adidas wrote on his heels (And I don’t blame…)
He’s a winner that we’ll never lose. When will his homeland pay him his dues?
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2018/5/7 - 13:42
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Parole e musica di Jez Lowe
Nell’album “The Ballad Beyond”
Testo trovato sul sito dell’autore
Hitler non strinse mai la mano al grande campione afroamericano delle Olimpiadi di Berlino del 1936, ma almeno lo salutò da lontano e Owens ricambiò il saluto. Invece il presidente Roosevelt non volle incontrarlo, preoccupato della reazione del suo elettorato bianco e razzista. Anzi, cancellò l’incontro già previsto alla Casa Bianca dopo il rientro trionfante del grande atleta.
L’ultima strofa fa riferimento al fatto che proprio nel 1936 fu la Adidas ad ingaggiare Jesse Owens: il primo contratto pubblicitario per un atleta afroamericano fu stipulato da un’azienda tedesca sotto il nazismo…