|
I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister/ See Also: Greenback Dollar
Traditional Old-time Song; Lyrics by Jim Garland
ARTIST: Sung by Almanac Singers 1941 (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger) CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: 1938.
RECORDING INFO: Almanac Singers 1941"TALKING UNION" Keynote K 303 B (Keynote album 106), July 1941[PETE SEEGER, lead vocal]; Bovee, Bob; and Gail Heil. Rural Route 2, Marimac 9066, CD (1996), cut#12; Garland, Jim. Newport Broadside. Topical Songs at the Newport Folk Festival..., Vanguard VSD-79144, LP (1963), cut#B.01; Rush, Tom. Tom Rush, Fantasy 24709, LP (1972), cut# 2; Seeger, Pete. Folk Songs with the Seegers, Prestige PR 7375, LP (1965), cut# 12; Seeger, Pete. Hootenanny!, Prestige Folklore 14020, LP (1963), cut#B.05; Wagner, Pop; and Bob Bovee. Pop Wagner & Bob Bovee, Train on the Island TI 1, LP (1977), cut#A.03
ORIGINAL ISSUE: "TALKING UNION" Keynote K 303 B (Keynote album 106), July 1941[PETE SEEGER, lead vocal].
OTHER NAMES: Tune: “Greenback Dollar" ("East Virginia", “Dark Hollow”)
SOURCES: Lomax-FSNA 153, "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister". Silber-FSWB, p. 313, "I Don't Want Your Millions Mister".
NOTES: Written by Jim Garland, a friend of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, as a labor protest song. Tune is same as “Greenback Dollar”. For detailed info see: “East Virginia and Dark Hollow.”
Chorus: I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.
Now, I don't want your Rolls-Royce, Mister,
I don't want your pleasure yacht.
All I want's just food for my babies,
Give to me my old job back.
We worked to build this country, Mister,
While you enjoyed a life of ease.
You've stolen all that we built, Mister,
Now our children starve and freeze.
So, I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.
Think me dumb if you wish, Mister,
Call me green, or blue, or red.
This one thing I sure know, Mister,
My hungry babies must be fed.
Take the two old parties, Mister,
No difference in them I can see.
But with a Farmer-Labor Party
We could set the people free.
So, I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.
|