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Our Open Eyes

from NO PASARAN! by Joe Solo

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On the memorial to the International Brigades in London, are inscribed the words of Cecil Day Lewis:

"It was not fraud or foolishness,
Glory, revenge or pay:
We came because our open eyes
Could see no other way."

That is the second verse of his poem 'The Volunteer'. It struck me as something of real beauty and I immediately wanted to base a song around the idea of a young man attempting to justify his leaving for Spain to his mother, and being unable to find any words of his own because the decision was so all-consuming to him that he could find no way of expressing it in words she would understand as her son's.

Tommy James was a powerful public speaker, and a man very capable of stirring political speeches. After serving at the battles of Jarama and Brunete, Tommy was shipped home to act as a recruitment officer for the International Brigades. The song could easily be based here, in the latter stages of the war, but I was struck also by the idea that maybe this man, and indeed Lewis himself, could have used the phrase because it was already in the lexicon of volunteers. I say this because in Tommy James's book, "Pounded Earth", he describes travelling by train from Sheffield with four other men. One, Jack Atkinson, Tommy already knew. Another he refers to as "Arnold, a comrade from Leeds" whom he describes as belonging to no political party, but as being a "trade unionist and sincere and ardent anti-fascist". I know nothing else of "Arnold" or how he fared in Spain, but it is he I dream up when I sing the song, a man clearly in awe of Tommy, and yet with powerful convictions of his own.

It's a simple song, but I hope a stirring one.

Enjoy x

lyrics

Saw Tommy James on Speakers Corner
And knew there and then I had to go
Just something in the way he spoke of freedom
I can't explain it, I just know

And if they ask you why we're leaving
To fight and die so far away
Just say a man needs something to believe in
And our open eyes could see no other way

Them Blackshirts, they came marching here last week, Ma
Spreading all their hate and fear
And like Tommy says, that's why we've got to go, Ma
If we don't stop them there, the same could happen here

And if they ask you why we're leaving
To fight and die so far away
Just say a man needs something to believe in
And our open eyes could see no other way

So I'm sailing off for Spain to fight for freedom
And don't try to stop me now Ma please
Cos like Tommy says, you have to stand for something
Cos who wants to live down on their knees?

And if they ask you why we're leaving
To fight and die so far away
Just say a man needs something to believe in
And our open eyes could see no other way

credits

from NO PASARAN!, released January 1, 2014
Joe Solo

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Joe Solo Scarborough, UK

Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough.

Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.

He is not an artist you forget in a hurry. ... more

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