Topical Songs?
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Susanne Gilmore
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:27 pm
- Location: Long Beach, CA
Topical Songs?
With all the earthquakes (and other disasters) happening lately in Mexico, Chile, Haiti, etc., a song that has been on my mind recently is "Guatemala." Bob used to play this song when I saw him perform here in LA back in the '80's. As far as I know, this song has never been recorded, but it sure is topical and timely again.
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Danny Harris
- Posts: 426
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:41 am
- Location: Lake Wendouree,Victoria, Australia
Re: Topical Songs?
"...and I live on a fault-line, too..."
"Some may call it wander-lust, some may call it crazy.
I don't call it anything - I Just Let It Take Me."
I don't call it anything - I Just Let It Take Me."
Guatemala
For Susanne and others:
Bob is amazed that you remember this Susanne. And Danny? How in the world do you even know the song at all? Bob hasn't played it in more than 30 years and as Susanne remarks, it was never recorded!
Anyway, he wrote it in February of 1976, just after the devastating 7.5 earthquake that rocked Guatemala, hypocentered in the tiny village of Los Amates.
The fragile adobe homes crumbled like dust.
Because it happened in the early morning (3 a.m.), most people were asleep, which accounted for the staggering death toll. First reports were that 19,000 had been killed.
Later the number rose to 23,000.
77,000 were badly wounded. About 260,000 houses were destroyed and more than a million people were left homeless.
This was long before Katrina, Haiti, Chile and some of the other more recent disasters.
Bob was living in L.A. at the time and says he couldn't stop thinking about it.
Here are the lyrics:
Guatemala
(Words and Music by Bob Lind)
Driving around I had no place to go
When I heard it on the radio
They said: "A little country down south of Mexico
Went last night."
Me, I had spent that night
Just wasting time.
Nineteen thousand, they just went under
And me, I couldn't help but wonder
If anyone of them had the chance
to get set for that.
It happened in seconds flat.
And I live on a fault line too.
I had a friend and she just got back
She brought hand-made purses and stuff like that
And just five days later the ground was cracking
And shaking down there.
She showed me pictures she'd taken down there
Before the fall.
There were blankets woven on wooden looms
And golden children in Inca ruins
And all I could think of was
"Jeez, I'm glad it wasn't me down there.
Looking it straight in the face down there
Under crumbling walls."
Guatemala, even though we're sad for you,
You make us angry because we care.
Even though this time, fate set the torch to you,
Next time it could happen anywhere.
So all day long I've been thinking too much
About who it passes and who touches
And why in the world it would leave me and take someone else away.
I don't know, but I'll take it.
I'll probably waste it.
It's just another day.
Bob is amazed that you remember this Susanne. And Danny? How in the world do you even know the song at all? Bob hasn't played it in more than 30 years and as Susanne remarks, it was never recorded!
Anyway, he wrote it in February of 1976, just after the devastating 7.5 earthquake that rocked Guatemala, hypocentered in the tiny village of Los Amates.
The fragile adobe homes crumbled like dust.
Because it happened in the early morning (3 a.m.), most people were asleep, which accounted for the staggering death toll. First reports were that 19,000 had been killed.
Later the number rose to 23,000.
77,000 were badly wounded. About 260,000 houses were destroyed and more than a million people were left homeless.
This was long before Katrina, Haiti, Chile and some of the other more recent disasters.
Bob was living in L.A. at the time and says he couldn't stop thinking about it.
Here are the lyrics:
Guatemala
(Words and Music by Bob Lind)
Driving around I had no place to go
When I heard it on the radio
They said: "A little country down south of Mexico
Went last night."
Me, I had spent that night
Just wasting time.
Nineteen thousand, they just went under
And me, I couldn't help but wonder
If anyone of them had the chance
to get set for that.
It happened in seconds flat.
And I live on a fault line too.
I had a friend and she just got back
She brought hand-made purses and stuff like that
And just five days later the ground was cracking
And shaking down there.
She showed me pictures she'd taken down there
Before the fall.
There were blankets woven on wooden looms
And golden children in Inca ruins
And all I could think of was
"Jeez, I'm glad it wasn't me down there.
Looking it straight in the face down there
Under crumbling walls."
Guatemala, even though we're sad for you,
You make us angry because we care.
Even though this time, fate set the torch to you,
Next time it could happen anywhere.
So all day long I've been thinking too much
About who it passes and who touches
And why in the world it would leave me and take someone else away.
I don't know, but I'll take it.
I'll probably waste it.
It's just another day.