Author Archives: Jake

Pay Me My Money Down

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Download the PDF of Pay Me My Money Down

This song will really get people dancing and clapping! Bring a tambourine! If you are lucky enough to have a band that has some experience with New Orleans jazz, they can go to town. I love Bruce Springsteen’s recording of this. You can listen (and see) it on the YouTube link below. The downloadable PDF has some simple ideas for harmonization.

Some suggestions for alternative lyrics—or you could write your own!

I thought I heard the President say,
Pay me my money down,
“Social Security’s here to stay.”
Pay me my money down!

Well, Elon Musk with his chain saw,
Pay me my money down,
He stole my money and he broke the law,
Pay me my money down!

They cut off U-S-A-I-D,
Pay me my money down,
Now Donald says, “That ain’t on me!”
Pay me my money down

And the ICE-man took me from my street,
Pay me my money down,
El Salvodor jails got no bed sheet,
Pay me my money down.

If you tell Donald Trump his word ain’t law,
Pay me my money down,
He’ll throw his dinner up on the wall,
Pay me my money down.

When Donald Trump is finally out,
Pay me my money down,
I’ll spend my money and I’ll sing and shout,
Pay me my money down.

Bruce Springsteen and his band singing Pay Me My Money Down

I’m Gonna Walk it with You

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“It looks like you might have a hard road, but I’m gonna walk it with you.”

You get to a certain age, you find that you have not been able to sustain promises to other people, or you have not been able to make promises to other people because you knew you wouldn’t be able to carry them out. This is a great, an amazing song; but I don’t think I could ever sing it. I wish I could. It’s the kind of promise that maybe Jesus could make. Or, maybe, a promise that we could make as a family, or a village, or a culture. Maybe I could sing this with the support of other people. I love this song.

Utah Women Unite gathering in the Utah State Capital January 2017

Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace singing I’m Gonna Walk it with You

Don’t you want to vote?

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Download MuseScore file of Don’t you Want to Vote?

This is fun, short and really adaptable.

Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Yes, I want to vote!

Have you registered somebody?
Don’t you want to vote…

Will you meet me at the polling place!
Don’t you want to vote…

Go and raise your voices!
Don’t you want to vote…

Yaray Allen Leading her song, Don’t You Want to Vote?

Mi unica bandera

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Download PDF of Mi unica bandera.

by The Peace Poets

This song cries out for percussion! It’s pretty simple, like all great dance music. In fact, it makes you want to dance in the streets. I would use it the way marching bands use a cadence in the percussion section: as a lively, dancing filler between other songs. It needs a charismatic leader to really bring people in.

The Peace Poets are a collective of artists that celebrate, examine and advocate for life through music and poetry. Their style emphasizes lyricism, rhythm and authenticity. They hail from the Bronx and have been rocking the mic since 2005.

Translation of the Spanish words:
Listen, my people, we bring the power. Freedom is my only flag.
Translation of English words:
¡Arriba, pueblo mío, cóndores míos, águilas mías! Ningún ser humano será jamás ilegal.

I am Not Afraid

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This is a great song to sing at a march or any action where people might get arrested, ICE is present, there is danger from hecklers, or at any action that is focused on the danger we are all in because of Trump and the forces of Authoritarianism. It’s a simple melody and one that can be enhanced by clapping and other percussion, and by improvised harmonization.

Here is a YouTube video that was made at at The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Theomusicology and Movement Arts Gathering in Raleigh, NC February 2018.

Hard Times, Come Again No More

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Download a PDF of the original Hard Times Come Again No More.
Download MuseScore lead sheet of Hard Times Come Again No More

Hard Times was one of Stephen Foster’s earliest songs, written in 1853. Though the language of the lyrics is filled with nineteenth century sentimentality, still it expresses the pain of poverty and the divide between the rich and the poor in a way that is just as real today as it was 170 years ago. The YouTube recording, below, by Emmy Lou Harris, et al, is truly amazing.

This recording by Emmylou Harris, with Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Mary Black & Rufus Wainwright is my favorite recording of Hard Times…

Hold on Just a Little While Longer

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This is a fantastic song; but I am never sure about its message. Will everything be all right, or are we whistling in the dark? However you feel about the truth of the sentiment, the simplicity and urgency of this song is very moving. If you feel that everything might not be all right, I’ve added an alternative lyric, “Justice is coming, this I know,” which is taken from The Poor People’s Campaign Songbook. Or you could write your own lyric. I’ll leave it with you to decide.

There are a lot of excellent recordings of this song floating around on the internet. Here are just a few…

Battle Hymn of the Republic

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Another great song from the Civil War—though this one may be more familiar to many as… 

“Glory, glory hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler,
Knocked her on the bean with a rotten tangerine
And she sunk like a German submarine.”

The original tune for this song was, John Brown’s Body. A song about the abolitionist, John Brown, who was put to death after a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859. If we allow ourselves to feel it, this song, with it’s simple, repetitive rhythm and it’s three-chord harmony, is still a stirring evocation of the righteousness we long for as a people.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic (LYRICS)

1. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

2. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

3. I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal;”
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.

4. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

5. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Link to Odetta singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic