Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Ballad of William Worthy


(Rise Up Singing Project bonus) -A song about Cuba and the U.S.A. by Phil Ochs.
William Worthy is a distinguished American journalist well-worth knowing about. Here's a good article on his life's work from the Bates College (his alma mater) website. http://abacus.bates.edu/pubs/mag/95-F...

Verses: C - G CC7 / F - C CC7 / F - C Am / C - G7 CC7 /
Chorus: F - C - / G7 - C CC7 / F - C Am / C - G7 C
I found these chords on UltimateGuitar.com, attributed to someone whose username is Goodbar. I like them, although I don't bother to switch to that C7 every single time you see it.

Lyrics:
Well it's of a brave reporter the story I will tell
He went down to the Cuban land, the nearest place to hell
He'd been there many times before, but now the law does say
That the only way to Cuba is with the CIA

Chorus:
William Worthy isn't worthy to enter our door
Went down to Cuba, he's not American anymore
But somehow it is strange to hear the State Department say
You are living in the free world; in the free world you must stay

Five thousand dollars or a five year sentence may well be
For a man who had the nerve to think that traveling was free
Oh why'd he waste his time to see a dictator's reign
When he could have seen democracy by traveling on to Spain?

So come all you good travellers and fellow-travellers, too
Yes and travel all around the world, see every country through
I'd surely like to come along and see what may be new
But my passport's disappearing as I sing these words to you

Well, there really is no need to travel to these evil lands
Yes, and though the list grows larger you must try to understand
Try hard not to be surprised if someday you should hear
That the whole world is off limits: visit Disneyland this year!

And here's a (long) article titled "William Worthy: The Man and the Mission": http://tinyurl.com/2fpg7pa

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