The Danish Peace Academy

Songbook

London Youth Choir: Songs from Aldermaston

London Youth Choir: Songs From Aldermaston
  1. The Family Of Man
  2. The H Bomb Thunder
  3. Song of Hiroshima
  4. If I had A Hammer

The Family Of Man, 1956

I belong to a family, the biggest on earth
A thousand every day are coming to birth
Our name isn't Johnson, or Jackson, or Jones
It's a name every man should be proud he owns

It's the family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

I've got a sister in Melbourne, a brother in Paris
The whole wide world is dad and mum to me
Wherever you turn you'll find my kin
Whatever the creed or the colour of the skin

It's the family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

The miner in the Rhondda, the coolie in Peking
The men across the ocean who plough, reap and spin
They've got a life and others to share it
So let's bridge the oceans and declare

It's the family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

From the North Pole ice to the snow at the other
There is not a man I wouldn't call brother
But there isn't much time, I've had my fill
Of the men of war who intend to kill

It's the family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

Some people say the world's a horrible place
But it's just as good or bad as the human race
Dirt and misery or health and joy
Man can build or can destroy

It's the family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

Text and music: Fred 'Karl' Dallas

Based on the 'Picture Post' exhibition of the same name, mounted at London's Festival Hall, 1956.

London Youth Choir: Songs From Aldermaston

The H Bomb Thunder

Don't you hear the H-bombs' thunder
Echo like the crack of doom?
While they rend the skies asunder
Fall-out makes the earth a tomb;
Do you want your homes to tumble,
Rise in smoke towards the sky?
Will you let your cities crumble,
Will you see your children die?

Men and women, stand together.
Do not heed the men of war.
Make your minds up now or never,
Ban the bomb for evermore.

Tell the leaders of the nations
Make the whole wide world take heed:
Poison from the radiations
Strikes at every race and creed.
Must you put mankind in danger,
Murder folk in distant lands?
Will you bring death to a stranger,
Have his blood upon your hands?

Men and women, stand together.
Do not heed the men of war.
Make your minds up now or never,
Ban the bomb for evermore.

Shall we lay the world in ruin?
Only you can make the choice.
Stnp and think of what you're doing.
Join the march and raise your voice.
Time is short; we must be speedy.
We can see the hungry filled,
House the homeless, help the needy.
Shall we blast, or shall we build ?

Men and women, stand together.
Do not heed the men of war.
Make your minds up now or never,
Ban the bomb for evermore.

Song of Hiroshima

In the place where our city was destroyed,
Where we buried the ashes of the ones that
we loved,
There the green grass grows and the white
waving weeds,
Deadly the harvest of two atom bombs.
Then brothers and sisters you must watch,
and take care
That the third atom bomb never comes.

The sky hangs like a shroud overhead
And the sun's in the cage of the black,
lowering cloud.
No birds fly in the leaden sky,
Deadly the harvest of two atom bombs.
Then, brothers and sisters you must watch,
and take care
That the third atom bomb never comes,

Gentle rain gathers poison from the sky
And the fish carry death in the depths of the sea;
Fishing boats are idle, their owners are blind,
Deadly the harvest of two atom bombs.
Then, landsmen and seamen you must watch,
and take care
That the third atom bomb never comes,

All that men have created with their hands
And their minds, for the glory of the world
we live in,
Now it can be smashed, in a moment destroyed,
Deadly the haryest of two atom bombs.
Then, people of the world, you must watch,
and take care
That the third atom bomb never comes.

Words and music by Koki Kinoshita.

If I had A Hammer

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening ...
all over this land,
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between
all of my brothers and my sisters
Allllllllll over this land.

If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening ...
all over this land,
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between
all of my brothers and my sisters
Alllllllll over this land.

If I had a song
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening ...
all over this world,
I'd sing out danger
I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between
all of my brothers and my sisters
Allllllll over this land.

If I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing ...
all over this land,
It's THE hammer of justice
It's THE bell of freedom
It's THE song about love
between all of my brothers and my sisters
Allllllllll over this land.

Lyrics by Lewis Hays
Music by Pete Seeger

JEP 3003

NADIA PERKINS, MARGARET MACKEARN, NADU LETSKI, ELLAINE TALLMAN, MARLENE FIELDER, GWYNETH ANTHONY, NICOLA SEYD, KIT SEYD, RODNEY LLOYD, ARTHUR PERKINS, JOHN BOYD, RON FIELDER, RAY EDWARDS, ALEC DAVIDSON

Directed by: WENDY EDWARDS Banjo'. RON FIELDER Guitar: ALEC DAVIDSON

SONGS FROM ALDERMASTON

THE FAMILY OF MAN THE H-BOMBS' THUNDER SONG OF HIROSHIMA THE HAMMER SONG

ABOUT THE SONGS

Song Of Hiroshima is an adaptation of the moving Japanese lament sung each year when the World Council against A- and H-bombs meets in Japan. It commemorates those who died—and those who, fifteen years later, are still dying—from the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The music was arranged by the Youth Choir's patron Alan Bush; the words are [translated -ht] by Ewan MacColl.

The Hammer Song was created by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, of the famous American folksong quartet The Weavers. "I'd hammer out DANGER", says the song—the danger that our whole world may go the way of Hiroshima.

The Family Of Man was composed by singer-guitarist Fred Dallas after seeing the famous exhibition of photographs of the same title. Fred has written many songs; this deservedly is one of the best-known and best-liked.

The H-Bombs Thunder was written (by myself, as it happens) because a group of singers got together to decide what they would sing on the first Aldermaston March and wanted a special song to mark the event. The tune is traditional; a long time ago it belonged to a Welsh hymn. The roads between Aldermaston and London have echoed to this song. It has been sung by thousands in Trafalgar Square. A copy of it has been given to Prime Minister Diefenbaker of Canada. It has been published in America and people from all over Europe have taken it home with them after learning it on the Aldermaston Marches.

ABOUT THE SINGERS

THE LONDON YOUTH CHOIR is a phenomenon. The point isn't just that here's a group of young people who sing because they love singing ... and sing, very well, moreover. As anyone could tell you who's stood with them on rainswept street corners, or had a new spring put in his step by their songs while marching beside them on the road from Aldermaston—these people mean it. They sing not just with their voices, but with their hearts. Join in! The world should be singing like this!

JOHN BRUNNER.

The words and music of these songs have appeared in the magazine SING (12a Chichele Mansions, Chichele Road, London, N.W.2). The words of these and many other SONGS FROM ALDERMASTON are to be found in the booklet of the same title published by John Foreman, 15 Mortimer Terrace, Highgate Road, London, N.W.5.

Recorded City of London Recording Studios, March 1th, 1960. Engineer: Bernard Mattimore. Supervised: Paul Carter. Recording: Colin Pomroy. Cover design: Colin Shaw. Notes: John Brunner. Recorded by Selection Records Ltd. in collaboration with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART OF THIS RECORDED WORK OR ITS NOTES WITHOUT PERMISSION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

PRODUCED BY SELECTION RECORDS LIMITED, 100 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C.2.

Printed in England by West Brothers- Printers • Limited, Mitcham

Published 2010 with permission from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, London.

Source: Record, 1960.

Related songs: Ian Campbell: The Sun is Burning.
Recorded on The Sun is burning – The Songs of Ian Campbell, the Ian Campbell Folk Group, 1971. Argo ZFB 13.
Song note: 'This was probably the first lyric anti-war song to achieve popularity and wide circulation in the British CND movement. The demonstrators marched to the strains of The H Bombs Thunder, but when circumstances called for something less rousing and more introspective this, I am proud to say, was the song that in the early days often met the need. It was written for Lorna and she has made it uniquely her own'.
First release as the single The Crow and the Cradle, 1963. Also recorded by Simon & Garfunkel on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., 1964 and as well by others.

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