I like Hitler, Jolly Jolly Hitler
I like Hitler and Mussolini too
I like Franco in Spain
And I'll have to maintain
That Batista was
Really quite all right
Trujillo was my man
Henry Ford/Hendrik Verwoerd would understand
What this country
really needs is apartheid
Loyally we Birch along
Birch along, Birch along
Loyaly we Birch along
Back to the good old days
God save the king.
I like Hitler and Mussolini too
I like Franco in Spain
And I'll have to maintain
That Batista was
Really quite all right
Trujillo was my man
Henry Ford/Hendrik Verwoerd would understand
What this country
really needs is apartheid
Loyally we Birch along
Birch along, Birch along
Loyaly we Birch along
Back to the good old days
God save the king.
Notes:
"There's supposedly a wave of conservatism sweeping the country (sounds familar) and as the groups move farther and farther to the right, they find fewer and fewer songs that can be sung by people or groups as a whole...and when they finally arrive, I'd like to...I wrote this song for them, so they can sing when they get together." -- Phil Ochs
About the Henry Ford reference: "Along with making Model-T Fords, he set a Jew hating tone which helped inspire Hitler's rise to power." --- Dave Appelbaum. [Check out David Rovics' song Henry Ford was a Fascist]
Rob Geller tels me that the reference to "Henry Ford" is really a misheard reference to Hendrik Verwoerd who ``was the prime minister of South Africa in the early '60s and is widely considered "the architect of apartheid." He was a Nazi sympathizer who promoted the science of eugenics and laws modeled after Germany's "racial purity" laws. Verwoerd was stabbed to death by an assassin in 1966 and today is the hero of the white seperatist movement in South Africa. While it's important to remember Henry Ford's contribution to the Fascist cause, Phil was casting his eye on the heroes of international Fascism when he wrote this song."
"There's supposedly a wave of conservatism sweeping the country (sounds familar) and as the groups move farther and farther to the right, they find fewer and fewer songs that can be sung by people or groups as a whole...and when they finally arrive, I'd like to...I wrote this song for them, so they can sing when they get together." -- Phil Ochs
About the Henry Ford reference: "Along with making Model-T Fords, he set a Jew hating tone which helped inspire Hitler's rise to power." --- Dave Appelbaum. [Check out David Rovics' song Henry Ford was a Fascist]
Rob Geller tels me that the reference to "Henry Ford" is really a misheard reference to Hendrik Verwoerd who ``was the prime minister of South Africa in the early '60s and is widely considered "the architect of apartheid." He was a Nazi sympathizer who promoted the science of eugenics and laws modeled after Germany's "racial purity" laws. Verwoerd was stabbed to death by an assassin in 1966 and today is the hero of the white seperatist movement in South Africa. While it's important to remember Henry Ford's contribution to the Fascist cause, Phil was casting his eye on the heroes of international Fascism when he wrote this song."
Contributed by Alessandro - 2008/10/25 - 13:02
Risale al 1961 la canzone parodistica "The John Birch Society" interpretata dal corrosivo gruppo folk Chad Mitchell Trio... "The John Birch Society! Fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right!"
Oh we're meeting at the courthouse at eight o'clock tonight
You just come in the door and take the first turn to the right
Be careful when you get there, we'd hate to be bereft
But we're taking down the names of everybody turning left
'Cause we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save this country from a communistic plot
We're the John Birch Society, help us swell the ranks
To get this movement started, we need lots of tools and cranks
Now there's no one that's certain that the Kremlin doesn't touch
We think that Westbrook Pegler doth protest a bit too much
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name
We're not sure what he did, but he's our hero all the same
Join the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Socialism is the ism dismalist of all
Join the John Birch Society, there's so much to do
Have you heard they're serving vodka at the W.C.T.U.
Well you've heard about the agents that we've already named
Well M.C.A. has agents that are flatly unashamed
We're after Rosie Clooney, we've gotten Pinky Lee
And the day we get Red Skelton won't that be a victory
For we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Norman Vincent Peale may think he's kidding us along
But the John Birch Society knows he spilled the beans
He keeps on preaching brotherhood, but we know what he means
We'll teach you how to spot 'em in the city or the sticks
'Cause even Jasper Junction is just full of Bolsheviks
The CIA's subversive and so's the FCC
There's no one left but thee and we, and we're not sure of thee
Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a Communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds
We'll use our hands and hearts, and if we must, we'll use our heads
BRIDGE: (O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain)
spoken: Friends, do you want Justice Warren to be your Commissar?
Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?
You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next-of-kin
If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in
To the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right
Join the John Birch Society, as we're marching on
We'll all be glad to see you when we're meeting in the John
In the John, In the John Birch Society
NOTES:
The songbook states that some Bircher's used the song themselves, and saw it
in a positive light. And don't forget the organization dedicated to the
preservation of wooden toilet seats - The Jack Ash Society.
Oh we're meeting at the courthouse at eight o'clock tonight
You just come in the door and take the first turn to the right
Be careful when you get there, we'd hate to be bereft
But we're taking down the names of everybody turning left
'Cause we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save this country from a communistic plot
We're the John Birch Society, help us swell the ranks
To get this movement started, we need lots of tools and cranks
Now there's no one that's certain that the Kremlin doesn't touch
We think that Westbrook Pegler doth protest a bit too much
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name
We're not sure what he did, but he's our hero all the same
Join the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Socialism is the ism dismalist of all
Join the John Birch Society, there's so much to do
Have you heard they're serving vodka at the W.C.T.U.
Well you've heard about the agents that we've already named
Well M.C.A. has agents that are flatly unashamed
We're after Rosie Clooney, we've gotten Pinky Lee
And the day we get Red Skelton won't that be a victory
For we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Norman Vincent Peale may think he's kidding us along
But the John Birch Society knows he spilled the beans
He keeps on preaching brotherhood, but we know what he means
We'll teach you how to spot 'em in the city or the sticks
'Cause even Jasper Junction is just full of Bolsheviks
The CIA's subversive and so's the FCC
There's no one left but thee and we, and we're not sure of thee
Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a Communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds
We'll use our hands and hearts, and if we must, we'll use our heads
BRIDGE: (O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain)
spoken: Friends, do you want Justice Warren to be your Commissar?
Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?
You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next-of-kin
If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in
To the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right
Join the John Birch Society, as we're marching on
We'll all be glad to see you when we're meeting in the John
In the John, In the John Birch Society
NOTES:
The songbook states that some Bircher's used the song themselves, and saw it
in a positive light. And don't forget the organization dedicated to the
preservation of wooden toilet seats - The Jack Ash Society.
Alessandro - 2008/10/25 - 13:11
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Non so se sia inclusa in qualche album di Phil Ochs... nella discografia presente su wikipedia non l'ho trovata... forse la eseguì al Newport Folk Festival nel 1963...
Hitler, Mussolini e Franco non hanno bisogno di presentazioni...
Fulgencio Batista era il dittatore cubano che la rivoluzione castrista spazzò via nel 1959...
Rafael Trujillo fu caudillo della Repubblica Dominicana negli anni '50. Personaggio egotico assai famoso per le sue "intemperanze"... ad esempio, nel 1937 fece massacrare in soli 5 giorni 20 o 30.000 haitiani, braccianti della canna che cercavano lavoro nella Repubblica Dominicana... o ancora, fece saltare in aria l'auto del presidente venezuelano Betancourt, che rimase gravemente ferito, solo perchè gli stava sul culo... Un tipetto talmente inaffidabile che - un po' come successe qualche decennio più tardi al suo collega panamense Noriega - fu fatto fuori (nel caso di Trujillo, letteralmente assassinato nel 1961) dai servizi segreti dell'eterno alleato statunitense...
Henry Ford è ovviamente il fondatore della Ford Motor Company... Fu un grande ammiratore di Hitler, ammirazione apertamente ricambiata: pare che il führer tenesse una foto di Henry Ford sulla scrivania, ed è certo che insignì l'industriale statunitense di una delle più alte onorificenze naziste, la "Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler" (Gran Croce dell'Aquila Tedesca)...
Pare però che il riferimento ad Henry Ford - anche se personalmente lo trovo azzeccatissimo - sia sbagliato e che Ochs si riferisse invece a Hendrik Verwoerd, primo ministro sudafricano tra i '50 e i '60, uno dei principali artefici della politica dell'apartheid. Fu assassinato da uno squilibrato nel 1966 (e ben gli stette!)...
Il sottotitolo e l'ultima strofa si riferiscono alla John Birch Society, una lobby, un think tank ultraconservatore e anticomunista che prende il nome da un missionario battista - nonchè ufficiale dei servizi segreti - statunitense, "martirizzato" dai cinesi (sporchi musi gialli!) nel 1945...