Older Songs
Note: We have tried to list the names or organizations of those who wrote the words to these songs. We apologize if there are errors, and would appreciate your corrections and information about missing acknowledgements. See “Contact Us” for the web e-mail address.
GAGGLE AGAINST CAPS (See Social Justice)
GAGGLE AGAINST DIOXINS (See Environment)
GAGGLE AGAINST FTAA (See Corporate)
GAGGLE AGAINST STUFF (See Consumer)
GAGGLE AGAINST WTO (See Corporate)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE TREES (See Environment)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE WORLD (See Peace/War)
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE CLOTHES BUSINESS
Discrimination/Human Rights/ Drug War
Economic Justice/Corporations/WTO
GAGGLE AGAINST FTAA (Free Trade of the Americas)
THE EARTH IS GONNA THROW UP OVER US
GET TOGETHER AND SAVE THE FOREST
GIVE ME A HOME WHERE THE RIVERS DON’T FOAM
NOW’S THE TIME TO RAISE OUR VOICES
P.O.P. (PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS)
PTP’S (Persistent Toxic Pollutants)
TAKE THE GROSS OUT OF GROCERIES
WE’VE BEEN THROWING ALL THE GARBAGE
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FORESTS GONE?
DECK THE HALLS (Nuclear Folly)
(Kay Thode)HANFORD CLEANUP (3/6/99)
STOP WASTING MONEY ON FFTF (August 2000)
GAGGLE AGAINST SOA School of the Americas)
Raging Grannies Theme Songs
GAGGLE AGAINST CAPS (See Social Justice)
GAGGLE AGAINST DIOXINS (See Environment)
GAGGLE AGAINST FTAA (See Corporate)
GAGGLE AGAINST STUFF (See Consumer)
GAGGLE AGAINST WTO (See Corporate)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE TREES (See Environment)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE WORLD (See Peace/War)
INTRODUCTION TO GRANNIES
(tune: Daisy, Daisy)
Raging Grannies, we’re visiting at your place.
Where there’s action we always show our face.
When we see a disturbing headline,
A light bulb pops in our mind.
By day or night we sit and write
A song that we can share.
In Iraq and also El Salvador
Where the children have suffered because of war,
The cause the kids do not see
They only know they’re hungry.
It would be great if strife and hate
Would end soon for all of them.
We love singing of peace and environment.
We hope you know exactly what we have meant.
We try to sing out loudly
And say the words out proudly.
Thought we have stiff backs
And our voices have cracks,
We hope you will bear with us.
For the children
Of each and every land
We are caring
We’re stretching out our hands.
The children of the world can
Be peaceful and secure and
If war’s to end, we must unbend—
It can start with you and me.
Consumers/Greed
AFFLUENZA
(tune: Frere Jacques)
Affluenza, affluenza,
What a drug, what a drug!
Buying makes us feel great
But depletes the planet,
Enough is enough! Enough is enough!
Today buy nothing, today buy nothing.
You will see, you will see,
You will have more options,
The earth will be more healthy,
Do it now, do it now.
ANOTHER WAY
(tune: Accentuate the Positive)
We gotta make more stuff--
Fuel the economy,
Buy more stuff--
Guarantee prosperity,
Go for greed--
While others live in poverty
We never learned another way.
We gotta eat more meat--
Nuke the food from agrifarms.
Kill more fish--
Steroids in the salmon farms.
Cut more trees--
Turn the land to fiber farms.
We never learned another way.
We gotta build more dams--
Turn more power on.
Make more cars--
Roads for them the travel on,
Pump more gas--
Keep the pressure on!
We’ll never learn another way--
We’re fat and happy!
(Spoken) We gotta learn another way!
GRANNIES AGAINST STUFF
(tune: Frosty the Snowman)
We’re the Raging Grannies
And we’re asking you today
To cut down on buying more stuff—
Show your kids a better way.
We don’t like landfills
Full of stuff that’s thrown away,
We like walks and talks and constructive games
To fill our grandkids day.
They don’t need all those presents
To fill their lives with cheer.
They really want your love and time
Throughout the coming year.
So join the Raging Grannies:
Boycott all that stuff.
Today is buy nothing day—
We all have enough.
PROFIT BELLS
(tune: Jingle Bells)
Chorus:
Profits here, profits there, profits everywhere!
Christmas time is funny, smell money in the air.
Advertise, glamorize, fool you with a flair.
Let’s make sure that Christmas is a businesslike affair.
You’re eating all our lies and dashing to the stores,
Then all the prices rise and how the money pours.
If we don’t keep you drugged and watching your TV,
You might see hypocrisy! Where would business be?
Chorus
We’ll tell you how to think and tell you what to try,
What to eat and drink, and how to live and die.
And if our plan success, when Christmastime is nigh,
Instead of seeking peace and love, you’ll hunt for gifts to buy.
Chorus
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE CLOTHES BUSINESS
(tune: There’s No Business Like Show Business)
There’s no business like clothes business,
The best business we know.
New clothes are so hip and sexy!
Throw out last year’s wardrobe, toss it all!
Nowhere can you get that special feeling,
Like when you’re shopping at the mall.
There’s no business like clothes business,
The best business we know.
LIZ and GAP and NIKE make you feel so great!
But those poor workers, what a fate—
Starving wages, bad conditions they endure—
But, shop on for the show!!!
SLOW DOWN YE FRANTIC SHOPPERS
(tune: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen)
Slow down ye frantic shoppers, for there’s something we must say.
If you would spare a moment all the stores won’t run away.
Big business has been telling us what Christmas means today.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
To some folks Christmas means a time for gathering with friends,
And enemies might take it as a time to make amends,
But TV says it’s time for pricey gifts and selfish ends.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
Some people feel that Christmas is when Jesus makes a call.
For others it’s a time to stress good will and peace to all.
But advertisers tell us it means Santa’s at the mall.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
Discrimination/Human Rights/ Drug War
PRISONS
(Tune: Home On the Range)
Prisons, prisons, more jails,
The answer to our systemstravails,
Where seldom is heard,
An encouraging word,
And the skies are not seen all day.
We lock up our poor,
And then they’re no more,
And we’ll feel so much better this way,
We’re building more cells,
Stuffing folks in these hells,
And big bucks get made that way.
Oh, give me a home,
Where drug agents don’t roam,
And no one is jailed for drug use,
Where the billions are spent,
For good drug treatment,
And addicts are free from abuse.
THREE STRIKES
(tune: Coming Round the Mountain)
If you’re jailed for three drug crimes,
You’re there for life!
If you’re jailed for three drug crimes
You’re there for life!
They have jailed five hundred thousand
All of them for drug crimes,
We must end this senseless drug war right away.
TWO MILLION ARE IN JAIL
(tune: Coming Round the Mountain)
Oh, two million in our country are in jail,
Two million in our country are in jail.
A main reason is the drug war,
And we are here to say, NO MORE,
We want taxes spent for treatment,not for jails.
UNEQUAL TREATMENT
(tune: Coming Round the Mountain)
If you’re poor and use cocaine,
You’ll go to jail.
If you’re black and use cocaine,
You’ll go to jail.
They will slap you in the cooler
And tell you you’re a loser,
They will slap you in the cooler
When they come.
If you’re rich and use cocaine,
They’ll slap your wrist,
If you’re rich and use cocaine,
They’ll slap your wrist,
They will tell you to get treatment,
And let you out tout de suitement,
They will let you out quite quickly,
When they come.
So it’s time for equal treatment--yes it is!
Oh, it’s time for equal treatment--yes it is!
Let’s decriminalize drug use
And treat all users equal,
Oh, it’s time for equal treatment--yes it is!
VOTER’S LAMENT
(tune: St. James Infirmary)
Oh, I went to the poll booth
And what did I see
But a ballot so peculiar
That it puzzled me.
I punched out the holes
As best as I could,
Cause I didn’t want Bush,
I knew where I stood…Democratic.
When the votes were all counted,
Al Gore he had won,
But the new president
Is George Bush’s son…How can that be?
So this is what we gotta do,
To stop that man from carrying through
His plan to wreck the environment,
And end the right to choose,
And give us all the blues…Real Blues.
We’ve gotta get together and unite,
Black, brown and yellow, red and white;
Work like H to prevent
George from carrying out his intent…Together, united!
Economic Justice/Corporations/WTO
CORPORATION GREEN
(tune: Wearing of the Green)
O Granny dear, and do you hear
The news that’s going ‘round?
The corporations have decided
They must shift their ground.
It’s the biggest mass conversion
That the world has ever seen!
They’ve seen the light, but it’s not white—
It’s corporation green!
Chorus: Now they’re corporation green,
Yes, they’re corporation green.
It’s the biggest mass conversion
That the world has ever seen.
They’re well-behaved, they’ve all been saved,
However bad they’ve been.
These holy men are born again—
They’re corporation green!
We’d like to know what hit MacBlo
And Fletcher Challenge yet.
They care for owls and waterfowls
And marbled murrelets?
“Share the forest” is the call
Big clearcuts are obscene.
And who can doubt dioxin’s out—
They’re corporations green!
Chorus
CORPORATE FARM
(tune: Old MacDonald’s Farm)
We all live on a corporate farm,
EE I EE I O.
And on that farm are too many pigs
EE I EE I O.
With a tax break here and a tax break there.
Here a break, there a break, everywhere a tax break.
We all live on a corporate farm
EE I EE I O.
Those pigs get fat but they don’t produce
EE I EE I O.
They’re not very pretty and they’re not any use
EE I EE I O.
With a bank account here and a bank account there,
Here a scam, there a scam, everywhere a tax scam,
Pigs get fat but they don’t produce
EE I EE I O.
There is no use for overfed pigs
EE I EE I O.
All they do is eat and oink.
With a tax scam here and a tax scam there
Here a scam, there a break everywhere an oink, oink
Kick them out and clean up the mess
EE I EE I O.
GAGGLE AGAINST FTAA (Free Trade of the Americas)
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we're a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We're raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
No FTAA.
With their world wide domination,
They'll do the planet in,
We have got to stop them,
We must not let them win.
So join this gaggle of grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We're telling you now,
We're angry and how,
No FTAA.
We really mean it, No FTAA,
We mean precisely, No FTAA,
We'll say it very nicely, No FTAA
READ OUR LIPS: (mouth No FTAA)
GAGGLE AGAINST WTO
(tune, Side by Side)
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice
We want a new choice—
NO WTO!
With the starving wages they’re paying
To workers sweating and slaving,
The owners all thrive,
Can workers survive?
NO WTO!
With world wide domination,
They’ll do the planet in.
We have got to stop them—
We must not let them win.
Soooo, join this gaggle of Grannies.
Get up off of your fannies!
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how!
NO WTO!
We really mean it—NO WTO!
We mean precisely—NO WTO!
We will say it very nicely—NO WTO!
READ OUR LIPS! (mouth silently, No WTO!)
JINGLE BELLS
(on corporate welfare)
Jingle bells, ring a ding,
We are catching on,
How this corporate welfare works
It’s not a pleasant song.
Chorus: Oh, jingle bells, ring a ding,
We are catching on,
How this corporate welfare works,
It’s not a pleasant song.
Repeat
Dashing through the world
On a corporate welfare sleigh,
Profit, profit, is their song,
They’re laughing all the way.
We’ve got a thought or two,
About your dirty schemes,
About the garbage, land and sea
What free trade really means.
Chorus
They export jobs afar,
To pay a cheaper wage,
The union guy is unemployed
And we are in a rage.
We subsidize the firm
We give them tax breaks too,
The third world countries protest,
But can’t afford to sue.
Chorus.
A “NEWT” DEAL
(tune: Away in a Manger)
Away in DC, no crib for a bed,
All the poor and the homeless lay down their cold heads.
The stars in the Congress look down where they lay
And say: Get a job and get out of our way.
The cattle are lowing, the farmers are glad,
Because price supports are sure to be had.
I love thee, Jesse Helms, look down from on high.
Subsidize our tobacco ‘til doomsday is night.
NO TAXES FOR THE STADIUM
No taxes for the stadium, the stadium, the stadium,
No taxes for the stadium,
We simply will not pay.
Housing for the homeless, the homeless, the homeless,
Housing for the homeless,
Not welfare for the rich.
We have told them No, before, No, before, No, before,
We have told them No, before,
Don’t they understand.
One more time our message is, message is, message is,
One more time our message is,
NO MORE STADIUMS.
RADICAL NEW ECONOMISTS
(tune: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain)
Oh, we're radical new economists,
We're radical new economists,
We like health care and fair wages,
And sweatshops give us rages,
We're radical new economists.
We like rules made out in public, yes we do,
And ones that serve all people, wouldn't you
We don't like, all that corporate greed
And we don't like those gene spliced seeds,
We're radical new economists.
We like trade that's local and that's fair,
And doesn't cut down trees and pollute air,
We like farms owned by the farmers
Not those agribusiness charmers,
Oh, we're radical new economists.
So, join these radical new economists
Who say get rid of WTO,
Let's set up a fair new system,
One we can exist in,
As radical new economists.
ROLL OUT THE (PORK) BARREL
(tune: Roll Out the Barrel)
Roll out the barrel, roll out the barrel of pork!
Contractors welcome! Grab yourselves a giant fork!
Billions are waiting, Pentagon-given to you!
Come feed off the people’s money, in the land of the red, white and blue!
What’s in this barrel, what’s in this barrel of pork?
Fattening Pentagon contracts, enough to make a pig hoarke! Bleugh!
Who reaps the profits? And who pays the cost of this crime?
Corporations raking in billions, while the rest of us don’t have a dime!
Let’s stop this barrel, let’s stop this barrel of pork!
No more military handouts! Plus that big drain with a cork!
Roll up your shirtsleeves! We’ve got a big job to do.
Cutting wasteful pork is hard work, and the job needs you!
WTO RAP
The World Trade Organization
Supersedes the laws of all the nations.
Trade is the answer, profit is the king.
To heck with human right, they don’t mean a thing.
Unelected corporate bosses make all the rules.
Guess they take us all for a bunch of fools.
No more labor standard, down with environment.
Child labor is much cheaper, sweatshops charge less rent.
Patent all the seeds, make the farmers pay,
Bioengineering is the order of the day.
Now the time has come to stop this corporate plan.
We want trade that’s fair, not this free trade scam.
Put a stop to this train of devastation
Before it wrecks the planet and our entire nation.
Replace the corporate rulers with people we elect.
Make rules that serve all people, not just the select.
Chant: WTO SIMPLY HAS TO GO! (three times)
BEGONE!
WTO AFFAIR
(tune: My Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown)
In my sweet little Alice Blue gown,
I tripped blithely down into the town.
There were cops everywhere,
A WTO affair,
And on every street corner,
Protester were there.
They were calling for a living wage,
And to rewrite each WTO page.
They don’t want modified food,
Or forests that are nude
Here or anywhere else on earth.
Environment
BICYCLE SONG
(tune: A Bicycle Built for Two)
Daisy, Daisy, bicycling’s good for you
Driving’s crazy, cars spew out CO2
We know we should not disparage
An elegant motor carriage
But take a hike, or ride a bike
The environment will love you!
Don’t you wish that we had commuter trains
Proper bike paths, or at least cycle lanes?
Oh, who needs an eight-lane highway?
Why can’t they do it my way?
We’d clean the air, have dough to spare
If only we’d use our brains….
CLEARCUT
(tune: Take Me Out to the Ball Game)
Take me out to the clear-cut,
We’ll picnic on a few stumps.
I want you to know I’m a tree-farming nut
Who thinks like a chainsaw that’s stuck in a rut.
Weyrhauser gets a Hip Hooray
They make paved picnic grounds pay.
So it’s one, makes you two,
Dear investors, thank you!
You have spruced up our day!
Take me out to the clear-cut
The timber’s been tidied away.
It’s been sold down the stream
In a businessman’s dream.
It’s swell to stand here
In a landscape so clean.
It’s off to lumbering elsewhere
I’ll lumber you and you me.
It’s the buzz of the mill (bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
That produces the thrill (wriggle suggestively, here)
Worth a million trees!
THE EARTH IS GONNA THROW UP OVER US
(tune: Coming ‘Round the Mountain)
Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us,
Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us!
We’re polluting all our water
And we know we hadn’t oughta.
Oh, the Earth is gonna throw up over us.
Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day,
Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day.
We’re polluting all our water
And we know we hadn’t ought.
Oh, the Earth is getting sicker every day.
THE FAMILY JEWELS
(tune: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning)
Watch out for those blobs in the water.
Polluting in spite of the rules.
They’re not just a hazard to nature—
They’re threatening the family jewels.
When so many of us got breast cancer,
No one seemed in a rush with an answer.
But wouldn’t you know that they’re raring to go
Now that research has shown why the sperm count is low.
If your lover has trouble performing,
Remember we gave you a warning.
If you want to be fruitful and to multiply,
Fish him out of that lake and make sure he’s dry.
GAGGLE AGAINST DIOXINS
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we're a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We're raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
NO DIOXINS.
With the dioxins that they're spewing
More cancers are accruing,
They're doing us in,
It's really a sin,
NO DIOXINS
To change this situation,
Dioxins must be banned,
Tell this administration,
They've got to take a stand.
So, join this gaggle of Grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how,
NO DIOXINS
We really mean it, NO DIOXINS.
We mean precisely, NO DIOXINS
We will say it very nicely, NO DIOXINS
READ OUR LIPS: (mouth: NO DIOXINS)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE TREES
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we're a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We're telling those chumps,
We’re sick of the stumps,
Save the trees!
We know that you mean well Plum Creek,
It's protecting nature that you seek,
So leave some more trees
For the birds and the bees,
Save the trees.
Oh, we're a gaggle of Grannies,
We've gotten off of our fannies,
We’re raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
Save the trees.
We really mean it,
Save the trees,
We mean precisely,
Save the trees…
We'll say it nicely,
Save the trees.
READ OUR LIPS: (Mouth) Save the trees!)
GET TOGETHER AND SAVE THE FOREST
(tune: Coming ‘Round the Mountain)
Oh, the forest’s our concern and so we’re here.
The forest’s our concern and so we’re here.
It was a lovely invitation
Asking our participation
‘Cause we do not want our forest cut and clear.
So if we can get together, all of us,
And find a plan that doesn’t cause a fuss,
We will fight for conservation
For the future generation—
That’s the one and only plan we will discuss!
GIVE ME A HOME WHERE THE RIVERS DON’T FOAM
(tune: Home on the Range)
Oh, give me a home where the rivers don’t foam,
And the squirrel and the chipmunks can play,
Where the lakes all have fish you can put on your dish,
And the skies are not smoggy and grey.
Chorus: Home, home on the earth,
Your beauty’s beginning to fade.
We’ve got to act fast, our luck it won’t last.
Our home we juste can’t throw away.
Those nuclear wastes are inclined to escape
When into the ground they are dumped.
We don’t want PCBs in the birds and the bees
And dioxin on our babies’ rumps.
Chorus
Oh, give me a home safe inside the ozone.
There’s danger in those cosmic rays.
Oceans up to our neck from greenhouse effect—
Please don’t wash all this beauty away.
Chorus
NO MORE BEEF
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
They gave us E-coli and deserts,
They raised our cholesterol, too.
They’re chopping down all the rain forests,
To bring those big Ma-acs to you.
Chorus: Cut back, cut back,
Cut back consumption of me-e-at.
Cut back, but back,
Tofu can be quite a treat.
They could use all the grain they feed cattle
To end all starvation on earth.
Resolve to stop e-eating beef now,
It also reduces your girth.
Chorus
Quit eating red meat for your health, dear,
For love of cows, piggies and sheep,
You’ll cut both your weight and your food bill,
And they won’t all be put to sleep.
Chorus
NOW’S THE TIME TO RAISE OUR VOICES
(tune: Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah)
Now’s the time to raise our voices!
Now’s the time to stand up proud!
Now’s the time to make our choices!
Now’s the time to shout out loud!
We want a world of peaceful coexistence,
And Earth where all the creatures can survive,
Not just pieces here and in the distance—
A place where old growth forest stay alive!
(change tune: The More We Get Together)
Sooo, the more we work together, together, together,
The more we work together, the happier we’ll be!
For your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends,
The more we work together, the happier we’ll be!
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENOLS
(Do as a rap or make up a tune)
Poly-chlorinated biphe-e-nols
Will fry your brain and rot your adre-e-enals,
Concentrating in our fatty tissue.
This is not a glamorous issue.
But maybe, if they bury it deeper in the ground,
By the time it kills somebody, we won’t be around.
Chloro-fluoro-carbon produ-u-uction.
Is causing ozone layer redu-u-uction.
When ultraviolet rays have seared us to the bone,
We won’t get much relief from using Coppertone!
Disposables pursue us no matter where we roam.
Who could contemplate a life without styro-foam?
We all want our comfort and convenience,
Which leaves us sitting squarely right on the fence.
These things are very difficult to believe.
It’s not the way that life’s portrayed on our TV!
Our kids might all get cancer and have defective genes,
But they will be the best-dress mutants you have ever seen.
Poly-chlorinated biphe-e-nols!
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la-la
P.O.P. (PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS)
We eat POP and drink POP
And breathe it each day,
Cause those cursed pollutants
Just won't go away.
They’ve found it in orcas and birds
In breast milk and in the fish,
We fear that daily we get it
In the food that we put on our dish.
Most of our waters are polluted
Toxic sites are all around,
When will you take some action
To protect our Puget Sound?
We're tired of waiting while you,
Do nothing and let toxics spew
It's past time -- Ban all releases,
End this poisonous stew.
Give us no more broken promises,
And lengthy prolonged delays,
Act now to protect us
PTP’S (Persistent Toxic Pollutants)
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
They've poisoned the food on our dishes
Even breast milk contains PTPs
We eat, drink and breathe those pollutants,
When will you ban their release?
We've waited for you to do something,
Protecting the public's your job,
But we haven't seen any action,
To end this chemical fog.
It's past time for you to take steps to,
Ban all those persistent PTPs,
Don't allow any more releases,
Start to cleanup, now, if you please.
ROLL OUT THE LOG TRUCKS
(tune: Roll Out the Barrel)
Roll out the log trucks! Even though people will yell.
Roll out the log trucks! There’s still a tree we can fell.
There’s no tomorrow—take what is easy and run.
When disaster strikes behind us, it’s okay, we’re gone!
Roll out the barrel! Sorry, it’s empty, we’ve found.
Roll out the barrel! Water is not to be found.
Forests are leveled, ruvers are muddy and slow.
Landslides, floods and NO more wildlife—people, too, will go!
They cut down the last pine tree, and they hauled it away to the mill.
Tit’s quite okay said Ralph Klein, cause those trees are all mine,
And a dead tree’s a reall good tree.
They cut down the old growth, then the soil washes into the creek.
It means that new trees won’t grow so the willlife must go,
And the LUNDscape will sure be bleak.
They cut down the old growth stands, then no tourists will come to our lands.
We’ll see the rivers choked up ‘til we can’t fill our cup,
So we must have a change in plans.
THIS CAN IS YOUR CAN
(tune: This Land is Your Land)
This can is your can, this can is my can.
We used it once and we’ll use it again.
It might come back as a bicycle handlebar!
This can was made for you and me.
This bag is your bag, this bag is my bag.
It works as well as the day it was made.
Just take it back to your local food store.
This bag was made for you and me.
This cup is your cup, this cup is my cup.
For take-out coffee it can be filled up.
Forget the Styrofoam and save the ozone.
This cup was made for you and me.
This land is your land, this land is my land.
We can’t keep taking and poison making.
If we respect it and don’t neglect it
This land will last for you and me.
TAKE ME OUT TO THE CLEARCUT
(tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame)
Take me out to the clearcut! We’ll picnic on a few stumps.
I want you to know I’m a tree-farming nut
Who thinks like a chainsaw that’s tuck in a rut.
MacBloedel gets a Hip Hooray!
They make black picnic grounds pay.
So it’s one, makes you two, dear investors, thank you!
You have spruced up our day!
Take me out to the clearcut—the timber’s been tidied away.
It’s been sold down the stream in a businessman’s dream.
It’s swell to stand here in a landscape so clean!
So it’s off to lumbering elsewhere—I’ll lumber you and you me.
It’s the buzz of the mill that produces the thrill
Worth a million trees!
So take me out to the clearcut—who needs tall cedars, I say?
The air is depleted and so is the earth,
And that makes us realize what we are worth.
So let’s all get into the greenhouse—it’s warming to know we’re okay.
And if God wanted trees, she’d not make it so easy
To whack them away!
TAKE THE GROSS OUT OF GROCERIES
(tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame)
Take the gross out of groc’ries,
Keep altered food off our plates.
Some of these products sound quite bizarre!
Keep mom’s home cooked fav’rites just as they are…
This is just what we’ve feared and
You know who is to blame.
Put a freeze on facsimiles—
End Monsanto’s game!
Take the gross out of gro’ries.
We are playing roulett.
Who can tell what will come of this change,
Or what happens when food’s rearranged?
Cause it’s gross, gross, gross what they’re doing.
Gene splicing’s really a shame.
We’ll get down on our knees and say PLEASE!
End Monsanto’s game
TEDDY BEARS’ PICNIC?
(tune: Teddy bears’ Picnic)
If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today, you’ll never believe your eyes!
Cause every three that ever was there is going away—it soon will be bare.
Oh where, oh where will the teddy bears have their picnic?
Weldwood’s taking the trees all down; the people said, “Please don’t!”
But they didn’t seem to care. Is there something we can still do?
It’s up to me and up to you, so we can save a place
For the bears to picnic.
TOILET TISSUE SONG
(tune: Men of Harlech)
Here is something that we wish you’d
Take on as a vital issue.
It’s the case for toilet tissue—
The recycled kind.
It is absolutely fitting,
Whether standing up or sitting,
We decide to stop committing
Environmental crime.
Don’t go on ignoring
All that bleach and chlorine.
Shop for a recycled brand
And you will beel much better by ensuring
Purer air and purer water.
Be and environment supporter.
Let’s all do the things we oughta,
Even on the John.
WE’VE BEEN THROWING ALL THE GARBAGE
(TUNE: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad)
We’ve been throwing all the garbage
In the city dump.
Don’t throw away your baby’s Pampers
‘Cause they’ll sit there in a lump.
The water’s getting real polluted,
And there’s not enough to drink.
If we sit here doing nothing,
Our world will really stink!
Chorus: The Earth is so polluted
The Earth is so polluted
The Earth is so polluted it makes us sick!
The Earth is so polluted
The Earth is so polluted
We better do something quick!
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FORESTS GONE?
(tune: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)
Where have all the forests gone?
We watched them passing.
Where have all the forests gone?
We ought to know.
Where have all the forests gone?
Gone to pulp mills every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
Where have all the songbirds gone?
Who saw them passing?
Where have all the thrushes gone?
Whose songs we know-ow.
Where have all the songbirds gone?
Seeking homes but finding none.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
Where have all the ow-wls gone?
Silently passing.
Where have all the great greys gone?
Soft-winged and slow.
Where have all the ow-wls gone?
To museums every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
Where has wilderness all gone?
To history passing.
Where has wilderness all gone?
Who let it go?
Where has wilderness all gone?
Where we’re going every one,
If we don’t ever learn.
If we won’t ever learn.
Health/Mental Health
A PRAYER FOR MEDICARE
(tune: Hole in the Bucket)
Patient: There a pain in my stomach, dear doctor, dear doctor,
There’s a pain in my stomach and I’ve got a cough.
Can I get an appointment, if you’re not too busy
Attending conventions or out playing golf?
Doctor: I wish I could help you, but you’ve got no money,
And I can’t afford treating patients like you.
There’s a hole in my pocket, my life style is slipping.
I used to have three cars—now I only have two.
Patient: But if you won’t treat me I might get pneumonia,
Iliitis, bronchitis or something much worse.
And hospitals say they can’t take more patients.
They can’t find the money for one extra nurse.
Doctor: Then phone up Bill Clinton, dear patient, dear patient,
Newt Gingrich and all of those nice GOPs.
You can’t expect doctors to care about patients.
We might lose our money and catch some disease.
Patient: But what do we do if we cannot affor you?
What do we do if we start to feel ill?
Doctor: We could sell you our CD, we call it “Dear Doctor.”
It comes with advice and a free headache pill.
MEDICARE
(tune: Yesterday)
Medicare doesn’t cover all my aches and pains,
Still my supplemental’s quite a strain.
Oh, I still need my Medicare.
Medicaid: it’s a safety net for working poor.
Cut it back and show them to the door.
Society is gonna pay.
Chorus: I said, let’s try change, they said no, they wouldn’t play.
I feel something’s wrong, how I long for single paaaay-er.
Yesterday nurses had the time to really care.
Now they haven’t got the time to spare.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Yesterday, doctors ordered needed pills and tests.
Now insurance bureaucrats know best.
There’s got to be a better way.
Chorus
Managed care lets big business make a lot of dough.
Single payer is the way to go!
We can improve on yesterday.
Yesterday, health care was a simpler game to play.
Now Congress wants to take away
My health care plan from yesterday.
STAND AND DELIVER
(tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike)
Come all you great leaders at Olympia’s heart—
Don’t fail the needy, please do your part.
We hear you support us, but wait in the cold.
Funded programs are coming, we’ve been told and told.
The counselors are caring, but they need real pay,
And time to help clients, not just wave “g’day.”
If we can fund stadiums, fund care programs, too!
Let caring increase! We are talking to you!
There a proven care program call PACT to consider.
Set’s stand up together and show: NOW DELIVER!
Come all you great leaders at Olympia’s heart!
Yes, hear our plea and please do your part.
Singin’ too rah di oo rah li oo rah li ay.
Sing’ too rah lioo rah li oo rah li ay!
Holidays
CHRISTMAS 1994
(tune: Deck the Halls)
Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Helms and Gingrich promise folly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Poor will lose all their apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Far more children will face peril,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Right wing crazies they are jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Think they’ll have their way by golly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Now it’s time to start the war,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
To fight poverty once more,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
PROFIT BELLS
(tune: Jingle Bells)
Chorus:
Profits here, profits there, profits everywhere!
Christmas time is funny, smell money in the air.
Advertise, glamorize, fool you with a flair.
Let’s make sure that Christmas is a businesslike affair.
You’re eating all our lies and dashing to the stores,
Then all the prices rise and how the money pours.
If we don’t keep you drugged and watching your TV,
You might see hypocrisy! Where would business be?
Chorus
We’ll tell you how to think and tell you what to try,
What to eat and drink, and how to live and die.
And if our plan success, when Christmastime is nigh,
Instead of seeking peace and love, you’ll hunt for gifts to buy.
Chorus
SANTA DOESN’T LIKE WAR TOYS
(tune: Santa Claus is Coming to Town)
Oh, you’d better watch out, you’d better not buy
Toys for the kids that are violent—OH MY!
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa says NO to Rambo and guns.
Lego and games are much more fun.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
The reindeer all cooperate
As they fly on their way.
We can teach our kids to do the same
In the way they play.
Oh, you’d better watch out, You’d better not buy
Toys for kids that are violent—OH MY!
Santa Claus is coming,
Santa Claus is coming,
Santa Claus is coming to town!
SLOW DOWN YE FRANTIC SHOPPERS
(tune: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen)
Slow down ye frantic shoppers, for there’s something we must say.
If you would spare a moment all the stores won’t run away.
Big business has been telling us what Christmas means today.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
To some folks Christmas means a time for gathering with friends,
And enemies might take it as a time to make amends,
But TV says it’s time for pricey gifts and selfish ends.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
Some people feel that Christmas is when Jesus makes a call.
For others it’s a time to stress good will and peace to all.
But advertisers tell us it means Santa’s at the mall.
Now it’s time we decided for ourselves, for ourselves,
Yes, it’s time we decided for ourselves.
Labor
NIKE TOWN
(tune: Chinatown, My Chinatown)
Nike shoes and Starbucks beans
Make millions a day
But workers who produce them
Get starvation pay.
One dollar fifty a day
Is the workers take
For the hundred eighty buck shoes
That Nike makes.
Bean pickers for Starbucks
Also get theshaft
One dollar twenty a day
Forces them to fast.
Nike town, oh, Nike town,
Why don’t you behave,
Share your mammoth profits
With those who sweat and slave.
Starbucks, Starbucks, coffee czars,
You can also share,
With those who pick your beans
Wages that are fair.
Let’s boycott these products
Till there’s decent pay
Corporations can afford
Sixty bucks a day.
(Kay Thode)
PUT IT ON THE GROUND
Oh, if you want a raise in pay, all you have to do,
Go and ask the boss for it, and he will give it to you,
Yes, he will give it to you my boy, he will give it to you,
A raise in pay without delay, oh, he will give it to you.
Chorus: Ohhh, put it on the ground, spread it all around,
Dig it with a hoe, it will make your flowers grow.
For men who own the industries I’m shedding bitter tears.
They haven’t made a single dime in over thirty years.
Not one thin dime in all that time, In over thirty years.
Chorus
The men who own the industries, they own no bonds and stocks,
They own no yachts and limousines, or gems the size of rocks.
They own no big estates with pools, or silken BVDs.
Because they pay the working man such fancy salaries!
Chorus
(Words, Ray Glaser; Music, Bill Wolff;
Copyright 1937, People’s Songs, Inc.)
SOLIDARITY FOREVER
(tune: John Brown’s Body)
When the union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on Earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one—
But the union makes us strong!
Chorus: Solidarity forever! (3 times)
For the union makes us strong.
It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade,
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid.
Now we stand outcast and starving’mid the wonder we have made,
But the union makes us strong!
Chorus
It is we who wash the dishes, scrub the floors and case the dirt,
Feed the kids and send ‘em off to school and then we go to work.
While we work for half the wages for a boss that likes to flirt,
But the union makes us strong!
Chorus
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong!
Chorus
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old,
For the union makes us strong!
Chorus
(The People’s Songbook)
UNION MAID
(tune: Redwing)
There once was a union maid
Who never was afraid
Of the goons and the ginks and the company finks
And the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall
When a meeting it was called,
And when the company boys came round
She always stood her ground.
Chorus: Oh, you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ to the union,
I’m stickin’ to the union, I’m stickin’ to the union
Oh, you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ to the union,
I’m stickin’ to the union ‘til the day I die.
This union mad was wise
To the tricks of the company spies.
She couldn’t be fooled by the company stools—
She’s always organize the guys.
She’d always get her way
When she struck for higher pay.
She’d show her card to the company guard,
And this is what she’d say:
Chorus
You women who want to be free
Take a little tip from me:
Break outa that mold we’ve all been sold—
You got a fighting history!
The fight for women’s rights
With workers must unit.
Like Mother Jones, move those bones
To the front of every fight!
Chorus
We modern union maids
Are also not afraid
To walk the line, leave our jobs behind,
And we’re not just the Ladies Aide.
We fight for equal pay,
And we will have our say.
We’re workers too, the same as you,
And fight the union way.
Chorus
WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED
We shall not, we shall not be moved!
We shall not, we shall not be moved!
Just like a tree that’s standing by the water,
We shall not be moved.
More lines: We need good pay for teachers…
Young and old together…
We fight for equal status…
We support our teachers…
Let’s all work together…
We must all be strong…
We shall live in peace…
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Come all of you good workers,
Good news to you I’ll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell
Chorus: Which side are you on? (4 times)
Come all of you stockholders,
Vote for a raise in pay.
It’s all those old retirees
Made Boeing great today.
Chorus
It really is the workers
Who make you all your dough,
Let them share the profits,
The only way to go.
Chorus
So listen to our song now,
Do the right thing today,
Give retirees and increase.
Help us to make their day.
Chorus
Nuclear/Hanford
CLEANUP HANFORD
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Get rid of that Fast Flux Reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it,
So get it shut down by the fall.
Forty-four million would buy us more cleanup
Not danger of future misuse
To produce isotopes or plutonium
For which there isn’t any good use.
We’re sick of you delaying deadlines
And wasting our dollars to keep
That blasted reactor on standby
It’s past time to put it to sleep.
You pay the contractors for failing
To do what they should have done
Then reduce the dollars needed for cleanup
This really is not what we call fun.
How long will you waste our tax dollars
To keep that damn thing on the line
We’ve told you for years don’t want it
Must we do it yet another time.
DECK THE HALLS (Nuclear Folly)
(tune: Deck the halls)
Deck the halls with boughs of holly.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Do away with nuclear folly.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Grannies in their bright apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Sing about the nuclear peril!
Fa la la la la, la la la la!
For your attention, we are dressed
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
For peace on Earth, you might have guessed.
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
We will sing out all our protest,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
’Til we end the nuclear mess!
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
DOWN OL’ HANFORD WAY
(tune: South of the Border)
South of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way
There are some storage tanks
Of nuclear waste bubbling away.
The fallout could blow here
And ruin our day
From south of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way.
For forty-odd years
No warning were given.
“No need to worry, dears,
About radioactive iodine.
The tanks are not rusting,
The rivers are clear.”
South of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way.
But this is all B.S., we know.
Aye-yi-yi-yi, Ayi-yi-yi!
FAST FLUX SHUTDOWN
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Uphold the November decision,
Do not restart FFTF
It’s long past the time that it ended
Before it makes a new mess.
Chorus: Shut down, shut down,
Shut down Fast Flux by 2003,
Shut down, shut down,
No more delays don’t you see.
Put milestones in the cleanup agreement,
To shut Fast Flux once and for all,
We’re sick of you delaying deadlines,
Just shut it right down by the fall.
Retrieve leaking waste from the waste tanks,
Vitrify at least 20 percent,
Import no more low-level wastes here
Stop delaying much needed treatment..
Chorus: Cleanup, cleanup,
Cleanup is job number one,
Cleanup, cleanup,
That is what must be done
(Kay Thode)
HANFORD BUBBLE
(tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It)
There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
But if the bubble it should burst
You will see the worst
Disastrous mess that you have ever seen.
If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
Then why on earth would you create
Ad deadly new mistake
By putting FFTF back on line?
Concentrate your bucks on cleanup, do you hear!
Concentrate your bucks on cleanup , do you hear!
We don’t need a new disaster
Plaguing us forever after,
So shut down FFTF for all time.
HANFORD CLEANUP
(tune: John Brown’s Body)
The chosen site of Hanford is for radioactive waste.
It mixes in our water and we all can have a taste.
The river called Columbia is about to get some too.
Nuclear soup for me and you!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!
We have so little money for clean up the mess,
We’re spending it on armaments that bring us happiness.
So what’s a little poison when you mix it in your tea—
It builds the economy!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!
HANFORD CLEANUP (1/22/02)
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Empty those high level waste tanks,
Vitrify seventy-five percent,
Don’t leave leaking active waste here
Despoiling our environment
Uphold the Tri-Party agreement,
Protect the Columbia’s fish,
We don’t want radioactive salmon
To be served up to us on our dish.
Line all the low-level waste ground,
Ensure they are safe for all time,
Clean up the soil and ground water,
Meet all of the legaldealines.
Clean up, cleanup,
Cleanup is job number one,
Cleanup, cleanup,
That is what must be done.
HANFORD CLEANUP (3/6/99)
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Get rid of that Fast Flux reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it
So get it shut down by this fall.
Chorus: Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me,
Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me.
The budget to clean the environment
Will be cut thirty-five percent
Don’t waste thirty million on Fast Flux,
For cleanup it’s much better spent.
Chorus
HANFORD HEARING 2000
(tune: Blowing in the Wind)
How many dollars have been wasted
To keep FFTF on line?
How much cleanup could you have done
With all that money and time?
How many years will you keep searching
For a reason for it to survive?
The answer, my friend, is all politics,
The answer is all politics.
HANFORD HEARING (10/18/99)
(tune: Blowing in the Wind)
How many times must we come before you
To tell you to shut that thing down?
How many times must we testify
Before you will hear our call?
How many times must we stand up here
Before you will listen to our plea?
The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.
(August 2000)
How many dollars have gone down the drain
To keep FFTF on line?
How much cleanup could you have done
With all that money and time?
How many years will you keep searching for
A reason for it to survive?
The answer, my friend, is all politics,
The answer is all politics.
HANFORD VICTORY (1/31/99)
(tune: After the Ball Is Over)
Now that fast flux is ended
Now we have won at last
We celebrate our victory
Cause that dire threat has passed.
We thank all the people in this room
For all the work they’ve done
Now we must all work to see that
Cleanup is job number one.
We still have a federal budget
That shortchanges people’s health
And they are still squandering money
On missiles that take so much wealth.
We’ll keep opposing this outrage
We will keep on with the fight
To create a world that is peaceful
Where nuclear war won’t ignite
NO TAXES FOR FFTF
No taxes for FFTF, FFTF, FFTF,
No taxes for FFTF,
We simply will not pay.
Spend the dough for cleanup,
Cleanup, cleanup,
Spend the dough for cleanup,
Not FFTF.
PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT (10/29/01)
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
We’ve written, we’ve sung and we’ve spoken,
All of it to no avail,
No matter how reasoned our stance is,
You just keep ignoring our tale.
Chorus: Listen, listen,
Heed what we’re saying to you,
Hear us, hear us—
You know that our message is true.
We want to be told of decisions
To reduce cleanup efforts before
It’s too late to take any action
To impact the process once more.
We want what we say to be heeded,
Not filed in another report,
And alternative viewpoints considered,
Not just as a last resort.
Chorus
We’re tired of coming to hearings
And giving our views every year,
What’s the use of this public involvement
If all we get is a deaf ear.
Chorus
RADIOACTIVE THYROIDS
(tune: My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean)
You’ve polluted the air and the water
Irradiated sheep and cows,
Seeped toxics toward the Columbia,
Oh what, oh what, will you do now!
Chorus: Clean up, clean up,
Clean up the messes you’ve made,
Hanford bosses,
Clean up the messes you’ve made.
You didn’t cause harm to our thyroids
The government says you did not,
But of course it took years to discover
Your nuclear gas release plot.
Chorus
Use all of your budget for cleanup,
And to compensate folks you have harmed
It’s time you made up for the damage
You’ve caused with your nuclear farm.
Chorus
STOP WASTING MONEY ON FFTF (August 2000)
(tune: Pack Up Your Troubles)
Stop wasting money on FFTF
And clean, clean, clean
Clean up the messes you’ve already made
And don’t make any more.
FFTF’s not needed
To make those isotopes,
So, shut down FFTF
And clean, clean, clean.
Y2K
(tune: Danny Boy)
Oh, Y2K, the chips, the chips are falling
In nuclear plants, both here and ‘cross the sea.
Four hundred plus reactors are waiting.
It’s not yet known where me-eltdowns will be.
To save the bank, we’ve all been told: Don’t panic!
But mum’s the word for nuclear tragedy.
The time is now: deactivate reactors.
Prevent Y2K catastrophe!
Peace/War
BENEATH THE NUCLEAR UMBRELLA
(tune: What a Friend We Have in Jesus)
Beneath the nuclear umbrella
We’re as safe as we can be.
Bush is such a pleasant fella.
He’ll look out for you and me.
We don’t have to think about it,
WITHOUT A SHIRT!
CIRCLE CHANT
Circle round for Freedom, Circle round for peace,
For all of us imprisoned, circle for release.
Circle for the planet, circle for each soul,
For the future of our unborn, keep the circle whole.
DREAM OF PEACE
(tune: White Christmas)
We’re dreaming of a peaceful Christmas,
With no more guns and bombs and fear.
Where all children are fed,
And all have a bed
To sleep in in the coming year.
We’re dreaming of a diverse country,
Where all our races live in love.
May we treasure each other’s life,
And all live together without strife.
GAGGLE AGAINST SOA (School of the Americas)
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We want a new choice,
No SOA.
Though it’s helping freedom they’re claiming
Their purpose really is maiming,
Our taxes must not
Be used for this plot
NO SOA.
To change this situation,
We’ve got to close this school,
End all the brutal violence,
And the military rule.
Soooo, join this gaggle of Grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how, NO SOA.
We really mean it, NO SOA
We mean precisely NO SOA
Read our lips: (mouth: NO SOA)
GAGGLE TO SAVE THE WORLD
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies
Urging you off of your fannies
We’re telling you now,
We’re showing you how
To save the world.
Oh, we’re a gaggle of grandmas,
And not just here for the heehaws.
There’s work to be done,
And it’s not always fun,
To save the world.
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies.
We’ll search in the nooks and the crannies
To find ways for peace,
For suffering to cease,
Save the world!
NOW THE COLD WAR IS OVER
(tune: After the Ball Is Over)
Now the cold war is over,
We should have peace at last.
Why are we spending billions
On weapons as in the past?
Have we channeled our military budget
To give us jobs and health?
Are we still squandering money
On missiles which take so much wealth?
It’s up to the folks of our country,
People like you and me,
To express our concern and outrage
Against such a wrong policy.
We surely can stop this nonsense.
We must say what se stand for:
A world that is peaceful and friendly
And free from the horrors of war.
SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS
(tune: School Days)
School days, school days,
Murderous and cruel days.
We’re paying taxes to train those guys,
Who torture and murder in the guise
Of protecting democracy.
Oh, what a cruel irony!
So join the campaign to shut it down,
And free those who were put in jail.
THIS BALONEY
(tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic)
This baloney docks at Bangor,
It docks at King’s Bay, too.
This baloney floats around the world
To launch bombs on me and you.
Oh it threatens all life constantly,
And costs a bunch of our mon-ey.
We all should RESIST TRIDENT!
(SHOUT) RESIST TRIDENT!!
TRIDENT
(tune: Georgia on My Mind)
Trident, Trident, our death machine.
We adore our Trident nuclear submarine.
La la, la la, la la.
Bangor, Bangor, that place is fun,
When the Navy let’s us see
Its great big gun.
La la, la la,
La la la la,
La la la la la la,
La la, la la la,
La, la, la la la la,
La la, la la,
La la la la,
La la la la la la,
La la, la la la
Social Justice/Welfare
THE DOWNSIZED BLUES
(Rap)
I’ve been downsized and privatized,
And my paycheck is minimized.
So I’ve finally realized
The system doesn’t work for me.
Oh, I’ve been misled and mesmerized
To think welfare moms are too subsidized.
But now I’ve finally realized
That they aren’t the enemy.
Oh, the welfare poor and the working poor
Both are feeling mighty insecure.
The only thing they know for sure
Is the system doesn’t work for them.
So they better unite and start to fight—
Only unity will build their might.
That’s what it takes to end their plight,
And make the system work for them.
GAGGLE AGAINST CAPS
(tune: Side by Side)
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice, we want a new choice,
REMOVE WELFARE CAPS.
With all the money they’re spending
On military hardware unending,
Behaving like saps,
With their welfare caps,
REMOVE THOSE CAPS.
Although it’s a tradition
To blame welfare for our debt,
That lie is just a fiction,
Reclaim our safety net.
Sooo, join this gaggle of Grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now, we’re angry and how,
REMOVE WELFARE CAPS.
We really mean it, REMOVE THOSE CAPS.
We mean precisely, REMOVE THOSE CAPS.
We’ll say it very nicely, REMOVE THOSE CAPS
READ OUR LIPS: (Mouth) REMOVE THOSE CAPS
HOKUS POKUS
(tune: Hokey Pokey)
You know the right wing’s in.
Let’s get the right wing out.
Put good people in
To shake things all about.
We’ll stop the hokus pokus,
Find help for those in need—
That’s what it’s all about!
We’ll put some health care in,
Take the missiles out,
Fund housing and our schools,
And shake things all about.
We’ll stop the hokus pokus
With jobs and equal pay—
That’s what it’s all about!
They say new fashions are in
And our hairstyles are out.
We Grannies don’t care
Their wisdom we doubt.
Let’s change to comfy clothing
And throw the high heels out.
That’s what it’s all about!
Let’s stop the hokus pokus,
Let’s readjust our focus!
That’s what it’s all about!
Women’s Issues
THE BAD OLD DAYS
(tune: Ode to Joy)
We’re the women who did the work so men could get the credit.
We said leave it all to us and wished we’d never said it.
Leave the dishes in the sink--you sit down and rest, dear,
I can do the clearing up, I can do it best, dear.
No, I don’t mind staying late--I’ll type another stencil
Can I get your coffee now? Let me sharpen your pencil!
We’re the women who did the work so men could get the credit.
We said leave it all to us and wished we’d never said it.
I’m sorry that the baby cried, I’m sorry that she wet you.
I’m sorry she threw up on you, I’m sorry she upset you.
We’re the women who did the work so men could get the credit.
We said leave it all to us and wished we’d never said it.
We’re prepared to do the work, but we want more than credit.
Equal pay for equal work--we’ll SING until we get it!
THE BATTLE HYMN OF WOMEN
(tune: The Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the flame of women’s rage
Kept smoldering for centuries, now burning in this age.
No longer are we prisoners in that old gilded cage
That’s why we’re marching on.
Chorus:
Move on over or we’ll move you
Move on over or we’ll move you
Move on over or we’ll move you
For women’s time has come!
You have told us to speak softly, to be gentle and to smile
Expected us to change ourselves with every passing style.
The only work for women was to clean and sweep and file
That’s why we’re marching on!
Chorus
It is we who’ve done your cooking, done your cleaning, kept your rules.
We gave birth to your children and we taught them in your schools.
We’ve kept the system running but we’re laying down our tools.
That’s why we’re marching on!
Chorus
We have broken through our shackles, now we sing a battle song
We march for liberation and we’re many millions strong
We’ll build a new society, we’ve waited much too long,
That’s why we’re marching on!
Chorus, twice, ending: YES, women’s time has come!
THE CONDOM SONG
(tune: When You Wore a Tulip)
(Spoken) I used to wear a diaphram, I used to take the pill,
I smeared myself with every kind of contraceptive gel.
But times have changed, since then, old dear,
So listen up to me.
It’s your turn now for
Reproductive responsibility,
Sooooooo
You’ll wear a condom,
A big rubber condom
And I’ll wear a great big smile!
Cause it ain’t gonna hurt ya
To don that gutta percha
Now that safe sex is in style.
So take it out of your wallet,
Whatever you call it,
And stretch it for a mile,
And put on your condom
Your big rubber condom
And I’ll put on my sexiest smile.
You’ll wear a condom,
A big rubber condom,
And I’ll wear a negligee.
Cause no one can doubt it,
If you’re careless about it
It’s the woman who will pay.
So if you’re getting excited,
You don’t have to fight it,
Just do it the Boy Scout way,
And put on that condom,
Your big rubber condom,
And I’ll put on my negligee!
CYCLE OF ABUSE
(tune: Clementine)
There’s a cycle, there’s a cycle, there’s a cycle of abuse,
Guns and beatings, harsh mistreatings,
There’s a cycle of abuse.
How to break it, that’s the question
For all women far and near,
So all sisters on the planet
Can walk safely without fear.
We as Grannies, take the challenge, and with thought we do reflect,
On a world full of awareness,
And of mutual respect.
Now all people have a role to play,
In this universal scheme.
To enlist all of our children
To embrace the global dream.
GREY MOTHERHOOD
(tune: Rockabye Baby)
Rockabye baby, mum’s feeling great.
Menopause over, never too late.
Birth after sixty’s the “in” thing to do.
It makes me feel young—what about you?
They told me a facelift would be as good,
But wouldn’t make news like grey motherhood.
Now science can boost my hormonal drive—
I plan to have twins in two thousand and five!
MAMMAGRAM POEM
For years and years they told me, be careful of your breasts.
Don't ever squeeze or bruise them and give them monthly tests.
Well, I heeded all their warnings and I protected them by law.
I guarded them very carefully and I always wore a bra.
Then after thirty years of careful care, the doctor found a lump.
He ordered up a mammagram to look inside that clump.
Now stand very close she said to me as she got my tit in line,
And tell me if it hurts she said. Ah, yes, that's fine.
She stepped upon a pedal. I could not believe my eyes.
A plastic plate was bearing down. My boob was in a vice.
My skin was stretched and stretched way up by my chin,
And my poor little tit was being squashed to Swedish pancake thin.
Excrutiating pain I felt within its vicelike grip,
A prisoner in that vicious thing, my poor defenseless tit.
Take a big breath she said to me--who does she think she's kidding?
That's very good I heard her say. The room was slowly swaying.
Now, let's get the other one. That's when I started praying.
Cause it squeezed me up and down and it squeezed me from both sides.
I bet she never had this done to her tender little hide.
If I had no problems when I went in, I surely had one now.
Why if there had been a cyst in there, it would have popped, kerpow!
Oh, this damn machine was made by man, of this I have no doubt.
If she'd have got his nuts in there, for weeks he'd go without.
MAMMOGRAM SONG
(tune: Thanks for the Memories)
Thanks for the mammogram!
It wasn’t lots of fun,
It made my breast go numb.
Squash me any harder
And I’d be a hot cross bun!
But thank you, so much.
Thanks for the mammogram!
It really helped to see
The shady side of me.
The xrays found what I could not
As large as a small pea.
So thank you, so much.
So many poisons have caught us,
But we never knew that it brought us
The breast cancer level we fought off.
It isn’t fun, the harm’s been done.
So thanks for the mammogram.
I wish I could be sure
They’re finding out a cure—
Or, better still, what causes it
So I can save my favorite tit
So thank you, so much.
NEW WHIFFENPOOF SONG
I’m a poor little drunk who beat my wife
After too much booze.
Whatever the crime I committed that day
Here’s my excuse.
Innocent soul, I got taken in,
By those evil demons, scotch and gin,
Somebody slipped me a mickey finn—
Baa, Baa, Baa.
I cannot remember what happened that night,
I’d had too much ale,
So you can’t find me guilty,
It wouldn’t be right,
To send me to jail.
I’m a gentleman’s son who will never fry,
I’ve always got an alibi,
My alcohol reading was much too high,
Baa, Baa, Baa.
SAFE SEX
(tune: Hi, Ho! Hi Ho! It’s Off to Work We Go)
Hi ho! Hi ho! It’s off to bed we go.
We Grannies smile because we know
Safe sex is quite the best.
Hi ho! Ho hay! It could be night or day.
Explicit rules we must obey!
Safe sex is quite the best.
Ho ho! Ho ho! Life ain’t no picture show.
To anything else, say No! No! No!
Safe sex is best!
THERE ARE WOMEN IN OUR TOWN
(tune: there’s a Tavern in the Town)
There are women in our town, in our town,
Who are bravely breaking ground, breaking ground.
They are showing us how to be equal, strong and free.
Granny would be proud of you and me, you and me!
Chorus: Fare thee well, for when we leave thee,
Just remember we still need thee,
And remember that we all must play our, our part.
Long ago our Grannies joined the fight, joined the fight.
To earn for us some equal rights, equal rights,
Like vo-oting and almost equal pay
Thanks to them we’re better off today, today!
Chorus
Now the issues aren’t so clear, aren’t so clear.
We need to fight them far and near, far and near.
When patriarchy and prejudice are gone,
There’ll still be issues to work on, work on!
There’ll still be issues to work on!
WE’RE ALL AGING WELL
(tune: New York, New York)
We’re all aging well!
Can’t you really tell?
We walk our mile every day,
Our hear’s okay.
We’ve changed to tofu.
We’re no longer blue.
We’ve dumped the meat off the grill,
Our body’s trim.
We’re going to find a way
To keep that old-fashioned charm,
And eating veggies galore
Right off the farm.
We’re traveling far
In our touring car.
We’re trying to go round the world
While we’re still young.
We’ll really celebrate
Before it is too late!
We’re living life
Right to the end
(Spoken) You’d better believe it!
We’re living life right to the end!
VIAGRA
(tune: Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend)
When he can’t get it up,
There’s a pill now at the bedside.
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
It will thrill him, it will fill him,
With passion unrelenting,
If he has enough cash
To withstand the rash
Of blue tinted skin
And blood rushing in
While the drug companies
Rake in the dough.
When the mood is upon us
He’ll act like Adonis.
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
There’s money in it!
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
Violence/Guns
PRIME TIME SLIME
(tune: Home on the Range)
Oh, give us TV, without violence, please!
We’ve discussed this at least fifty years.
We’re sick and we’re tired
To see programming mired
In murder and mayhem and fear.
Chorus:
How do children learn
To be wise, free thinking and strong?
They need role models who
Show the kind thing to do,
Who demonstrate violence is wrong.
Do you wonder why crime increases each time,
With those do-it-yourself training shows?
How to rape, rob and scam with complete diagram.
We are fed up, heaven knows!
Chorus
Don’t train kids for crime,
With your prime time slime—
Put spunk and adventure right back.
We want FCC
To enrich our TV
With programs of fancy and fact.
Chorus
SANTA DOESN’T LIKE WAR TOYS
(tune: Santa Claus is Coming to Town)
Oh, you’d better watch out, you’d better not buy
Toys for the kids that are violent—OH MY!
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa says NO to Rambo and guns.
Lego and games are much more fun.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
The reindeer all cooperate
As they fly on their way.
We can teach our kids to do the same
In the way they play.
Oh, you’d better watch out, You’d better not buy
Toys for kids that are violent—OH MY!
Santa Claus is coming,
Santa Claus is coming,
Santa Claus is coming to town!