Joshua Gone Barbados, Still Big Sugar! Will it ever end?

Oct3

Eric Von Schmidt was a Fulbright Scholar who made his living as a graphic artist, illustrator and painter. He was also a musician who was a central figure at the 1960’s folk revival, Cambridge Massachusetts, where his musical knowledge and abilities influenced other musicians like Tom Rush and Bob Dylan.

“Joshua Gone Barbados” was one of a number of songs he wrote after he and his family vacationed on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1962.

I actually prefer the Tom Rush version

The song is about the island’s unsuccessful sugar cane strike of 1962. This happened a few weeks ahead of Eric’s arrival. History shows that his lyrics contained mostly accurate observations but also included false rumors that spread all over the island at the time of the strike. One rumor was that strikers were killed and the other was that Ebenezer Joshua had deserted the cause.

Joshua was born in Kingstown, Saint Vincent, British Windward Islands. He was an official of a trade union when he tried unsuccessfully to be elected to the Trinidad legislature.Returning to Saint Vincent, Joshua entered politics, and was elected to the island’s assembly in 1951. In 1952 he and his wife Ivy Joshua founded the People’s Political Party as the political arm of the Federated Industrial Allied Workers Union, a trade union organization aimed at representing agricultural and shipyard workers.

The platform included improving wages and working conditions and severing colonial ties with Great Britain. By the 1950’s Joshua had become St. Vincent’s most well known advocate for the working class and by the 1960’s he ended up as the island’s Chief Minister.

Someone wrote “St. Vincent in 1962 like many Caribbean islands had been swept up in the wave of nationalism inspired by the Cuban revolution.” Really? Darlin you go out in the hot sun with a machete and cut sugarcane for 12 hours a day. Pretty sure people just got tired of being treated like dogs. Try it for a day and get back to me.

At the same time the Caribbean’s economic engine of sugar production began to falter as prices fell. (The plot thickens!)

Stay with me!

In 1962 Joshua discontinued government subsidies for the sugar growers, leading the Mt Bentinck Sugar Cane Factory to close after years of financial mismanagement.

Also, In 1962 two islands , Jamaica and Trinidad, withdrew from the federation. In May 1962 the remaining island members were to hold a meeting in Barbados to discuss the federation’s future. Joshua made the choice between staying at home to help with the strike or to travel to Barbados and continue to work toward the end of colonial rule. He chose to address the long-term challenge in Barbados.

According to Wikipedia a misunderstanding of this sequence of events and Vincentian history by American musician Eric von Schmidt became the basis for the song “Joshua Gone Barbados“

Joshua is recognized as the person most responsible for the rights and benefits accorded the working class and poor in modern St. Vincent: Increased wages, holidays with pay, protection from eviction, and protection against child labor.

IDK Other people have reported other things that you are more than welcome to google.

Who knows?

The point, besides sharing some great music, is that Big Sugar as we call them still get what they want. They swarm the halls of Tallahassee every year making sure they get everything they need from politicians from both sides of isle. Screw the workers. Screw the environment.

Now it’s 2021 and I just found this article from Mother Jones.

The High Human Cost of America’s Sugar Habit

The High Human Cost of America’s Sugar Habit

“we came to realize the story wasn’t just about Lulu. It was about the 68,000-some Haitian cañeros still in the fields, and their living and working conditions, especially under the island’s biggest plantation holder: Central Romana. Owned in part by brothers Alfonso and Pepe Fanjul, Cuban exiles who are now billionaire Florida sugar barons, Central Romana sugarcane is cut by Haitians, crushed and poured as raw sugar into the holds of vessels, and shipped to the Fanjuls’ ASR Domino refinery in Baltimore harbor.”

This never ends.

Locally, we have our whole story of the Glades. I’m not talking about our farmers. (don’t start pickin on me! We love our veggies but sugar is not a vegetable!) I’m talking about the big corporations.

Pioneer Park is a huge park where children go to play

Right now what goes on is sugar burning. When does it go on? When the wind is blowing from the east. That way only the people that live out in the glades are affected. It would never happen with the wind coming out of the west. I went out there years ago and spoke with a mom whose young son had chronic bronchitis and she couldn’t afford to go to the doctor.

I think Eric Von Schmidt saw the inhumanity of the entire situation. We can thank him for shining a light. Yes, Joshua got a bad rap but after all it was the 60s. Politicians were the enemy (hmmm has anything changed?)

Maybe the events didn’t happen at that one particular time but they did happen, still do happen and politicians are at the center of the whole situation.

At at the end of the day Eric was the one who shined a bright light on the actual issue of cane workers that continues to this day.

It will continue until we have the political will to change things.

Joshua Gone Barbados

Cane standing in the fields

Getting old and red

Lot of misery in Georgetown

Three men lying dead

Joshua, head of the government

He said strike for better pay

Cane cutters are striking

Joshua gone away

Joshua gone Barbados

Staying in a big hotel

People on St. Vincent

They got many sad tales to tell

Sugar mill owner told the strikers

I don’t need you to cut my cane

Bring in another bunch of fellows

Strike be all in vain

Get a bunch of tough fellows

Bring ’em from Sion Hill

Bring ’em in a bus to Georgetown

Know somebody get killed

Sonny Child, the overseer

I swear he’s an ignorant man

Walking through the cane field

Pistol in his hand

But Joshua gone Barbados

Just like he don’t know

People on the island

They got no place to go

Police giving protection

New fellows cutting the cane

Strikers can’t do nothing

Strike be all in vain

And Sonny Child, he curse the strikers

Wave his pistol ’round

They’re beating Sonny with a cutlass

Beat him to the ground

There’s a lot of misery in Georgetown

You can hear the women bawl

Joshua gone Barbados

He don’t care at all

Cane standing in the fields

Getting old and red

Sonny Child in the hospital

Pistol on his bed

I wish I could go to England

Trinidad or Curacao

People on the island

They got no place to go

Joshua gone Barbados

Staying in a big hotel

People on St. Vincent

Got many sad tales to tell

Songwriters: Eric Von Schmidt

Is this really any different from what goes on today?

Make sure to read this and watch the documentary H2 Worker Documentary. Legal Slavery.

H2 Worker Documentary. Legal Slavery.

We miss you Larry Hoppin!

Jan12

Happy Birthday and rest in peace #LarryHoppen We miss you!

cyndi lenz

#orleans

Larry in Newport Rhode Island, Rock4christmas tour

I knew it was around now. I’ve been walking around thinking about Larry. Thinking about what would life be like if he was still here with us. The few days have been frantic and i finally sat and I found this.

and this

I met Larry on a crazy tour called Rock for Christmas. Somehow, I got in my mind that I wanted to go tour and I got this chance to do so and insanity prevailed. I spent a lot of time with Larry in the bus, in the van where he gave me some really good advice that probably saved my life, or at least saved me from mounds of aggravation.

Larry Hoppen at a Christmas Party somewhere in Newport RI.

It was like therapy session for the both of us but he was so proud of his girls …

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Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

Dec19

I wrote this a while back. Today is Phil’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Phil Ochs and thank you for all you and continue to do for us through your music.

cyndi lenz

Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

I really never knew that much about Phil Ochs. I knew his voice that’s for sure. It is so distinct which makes watching his story even harder. Harder but compelling. I watched this documentary and could not stop thinking about it and all the important lessons we could learn from him I decided to watch it again a few weeks later.

There But For the Fortune
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/phil-ochs-there-but-for-fortune/watch-the-full-documentary/1962/

Also available on netflix

I try to watch as least one doc a week. I start off telling myself that I’m working on craft and production style but its when I get sucked up into the story is when I knows its good. When I forget about angles, the footage and just want more.
It’s all about the story. It’s always about the story. It’s all about THIS story.

Phil never even knew what folk music was until…

View original post 1,161 more words

Happy Birthday Bette Midler singalong

Dec1

Happy Birthday Bette Midler singalong.

I came across this lovely video and it seemed like a lovely gift to all of us.

Here the lyric’s if you want to sing a long.

“From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It’s the voice of hope, it’s the voice of peace,
it’s the voice of every man.

From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They’re the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.

From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.

From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it’s the hope of hopes, it’s the love of loves,
it’s the heart of every man.

It’s the hope of hopes, it’s the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.”

Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

Sep29

Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

There But For the Fortune
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/phil-ochs-there-but-for-fortune/watch-the-full-documentary/1962/

Also available on netflix

Phil never even knew what folk music was until he went to college and his roommate introduced him to “left wing music.” He was brought up with movies. John Wayne. He strove to be the “hero” and Sean Pean said “perhaps even the hero in his own movie.

1. Lesson number one. Be the hero in your own movie.
This is not so easy. We tell people to do this and then when they do it we say “Who do you think you are being the hero in your own movie?”

Phil quits college and goes to NY and says “I’m going to be the best songwriter in the country. He goes to the village. He met his girlfriend/ wife and Dylan would come over for dinner.

The backdrop of Phil’s life was the 60’s. For a folksinger there was plenty of material. He went to the south to work on civil rights. He would turn down commercial jobs for a benefit because it would reach more people. He would never turn down a cause he believed in.

He sincerely believed that people should be treated equally.
He worked hard and got a contract with Electra Records.
In 1963 he was Newport Folk Festival performer of the year.

Phil’s father came back from the war and was so manic he had to be hospitalized. The family was not close.
Phil played the clarinet and escaped by going to the movies.

“I aint marching anymore.” became the anthem of the antiwar movement

He got involved in the theater of the absurd and a protests called “the war is over!”

lesson number 2
intention is everything

“you can create your own reality when you become children of the media”

changes

Probably one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.

Lesson number 3
always have a plan b

Phil’s life was parallel to 60’s movement and he took personally the killing of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

But how he could not? How could you not write these incredibly intricate songs and not feel what was going on personally?

Phil was one of the people that started the Yippie Party so there could be an united front against the war. Phil liked the spirit and the theater.
During the democratic convention Mayor Daily issued shoot to kill orders and there were no permits issued.
Non of the rock and roll stars would go but Phil went to commit himself to the first amendment.
Phil was inside singing at an event that was permitted.
But it was at the main unpermitted event that that someone spontaneously lit their draft card. Then everyone lit up their draft cards. Then police and dogs were unleashed with a green light from the justice department.

It just happened. It was random. No one planned it ahead of time. One of the most organic meaningful symbols of the time. It just happened.

Lesson number 4: Sometimes we need to let things happen organically.

You can’t plan these things. The best things come out of well intentioned people with pure hearts that allow their movement to be organic. That’s where the magic happens. In some crazy space between the soul and spinning towards the moon.

Richard Nixon was elected.

Phil started drinking day and night. It was really hard for him to understand that he could not make the changes he thought he could. So he drank.
Then Kent State happen.

There was a lot of frustration. The movement became more militant. There were more bombings. The weather underground.

lesson number 5
There is never any reason to hurt another human being or commit a crime. When you feel this way what your feeling is frustration. Civil disobedience is founded in frustration. We have to learn how to deal with the frustration and move forward.

Phil shows up in a gold lame suit at Carnegie Hall.

Then he stopped writing “My subconscious wasn’t feeding me the material.” He said.

He was depressed and drinking. The highs would get higher and the lows would get lower.

Then he decided to see the world and “wash America out of his system.” He went off. He found hotels , a good meal and the best bordellos. According to his traveling partner he had no regard for his personal safety.

He went with Jerry Rubin to Chile. He got meet Victor Harra who was the “Pete Seager” of Chile and they became great friends.

Phil decides to go to Africa to record there so he can write the trip off. He recorded one of the first world music albums. He went for a walk and was jumped and when he woke up they bent his vocal cords and his voice was never the same after this.

He was devastated that he lost his voice and he thought it was done by the CIA. He came back to the US and had a bad accident while drinking heavily.

and then on on Sept 12 , 19 73 there was a military coup in Chile and the US was involved. The CIA was involved. It put Pinochet in power. The army put Victor Harra in a soccer stadium and they beat his hands up and walked over to the stands and told him “Lets sing a song for el commedante !” it was too much for the colonials and Victor Jara was murdered along with all the poets and the writers.

The poem was written on a piece of paper that was hidden inside the shoe of a friend. The poem was never named, but is commonly known as “Estadio Chile“.

“There are five thousand of us here
in this small part of the city.
We are five thousand.
I wonder how many we are in all
in the cities and in the whole country?
…
How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Horror which I am living,
horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song.

Víctor Jara, “Estadio Chile”
(translated from Spanish)”

Phil lost his mind and he did a benefit for the Chilean refugees. Arlo Gurthie, Pete Seager supported him. He even talked Bob Dylan into doing this. It was sold out!

This event opened up peoples eyes to what was going on in South America.

It was a great event for everyone and for Phil because it brought him back into what he did best. organizing.

Nixon resigned.

The war was over and Phil became really depressed
Lesson number 6 : Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

in 1975 he spiraled out of control. He was totally psychotic.
He kept on drinking. He felt worthless. He felt humiliated.
He went to his sisters and he wouldn’t leave the house.

His friend came and got him and took him out to montauk

Then he hung himself.
He was 35.

Today is Dec 19th 2016. Today the electors will be voting for Donald Trump. Today is Phil’s birthday. Happy Birthday Phil where ever you are. You live on through you music.

Happy Birthday Tom Glazer. Innocent times. Sing along!

Sep2

Happy Birthday Tom Glazer. Innocent times. Sing along!

Every morning I hit up my music birthday list and tweet out a song. I do this for myself. I can start my day off with music. I got a song to carry around all day. Sometimes when things get tough I can sing the song in my head. Hopefully it makes a difference in days of my friends.

Music makes us happy. It lights up our nucleous acumbans. It’s the same place that light’s up when people do cocaine. Music, for many of us, is our drug of choice for which there does not need to be any rehab.

So this morning it was Tom Glazer’s birthday.

To be honest I had no idea who Tom Glazer was but I knew his music.

“Glazer moved to Washington D.C. and began work at the Library of Congress.^[2] There he met Alan Lomax who worked for cataloguing American folk songs, and who was a great influence. Glazer began performing as an amateur and was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to perform at the White House for soldiers working there as guards. He made a successful professional début at the New York City Town Hall in January 1943 during a blizzard, and in 1945 had a radio show Tom Glazer’s Ballad Box.^[1] His songs of the period, such as “A Dollar Ain’t a Dollar Anymore”, “Our Fight is Yours”, “When the Country is Broke”, and “Talking Inflation Blues” took strong social stands.^[1] Glazer’s songs were recorded by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. He was part of the strong folk music scene in New York in the 1940s, and with Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Josh White helped prepare for the commercially successful folk revival of the 1960s.^[1]^[2] “He wasn’t fancy,” Seeger reported after his death “He was just straightforward. He had a good sense of humor.”

These are the two songs I tweeted out this morning.

If your child ever sang “Battle Hymm of the Children” today they would be marched to the principals office, the police would be called and they would be featured on cable news, ripped apart by Nancy Grace, Fox News would probably make sure you knew the parents were Democrats and the songwriter was a “Folk singer! A socialist from socialist times! Then somehow connect them with Hillary’s emails. Then the next morning would be the second story on Today Show (After Hillery’s emails). Matt Lauer will get all judgy with the parenting skills. Then we would all mourn that John Stewart who is not here to humanize the whole thing. In fact. I bet you he sings “On top of spaghetti.” with his kids.

So today in honor of Tom’s Birthday and our lost innocent times let’s have a sing a long! Sing with me! It will really make you feel better! Better than Prozac! Come on you know you want to.

We miss you Larry Hoppin!

Jul26

#orleans

Larry in Newport Rhode Island, Rock4christmas tour

and this

Larry Hoppen at a Christmas Party somewhere in Newport RI.

It was like therapy session for the both of us but he was so proud of his girls , his brothers , his friend Tam Kallman and of John Hall who was a US congressman at the time.

Larry Hoppen performing at the Hard Rock Cafe at Foxwoods

He was a true blue Dem! He loved Obama. I think his twitter feed is still up and that’s the photo he posted. He was mortified when Trayvon Martin got shot. I know that if he was here today he’d be writing songs about our water issues and Florida issues and try to do what ever could to help.

He was so worried that no one was going to come to the Newport Blues Cafe. He hooked with the mayor and it was right before Christmas and Newport was gorgeous. We made the rounds of people’s Christmas parties and events inviting people. Then he calls John Caffferty to come too. We also had James Montgomery, and Eddie Money.

I gave my video to the main video guy and he made something but I had a lot of video from behind the scenes that i’m even sure if I have it anymore. Crazy funny but some things are better off in a giant box of tapes. Maybe one day i’ll pull them out and put something together.

Larry Hoppen with Grace Morrison at the Newport Blue Cafe, Newport, RI Rock for Chrismas

After this Larry always called me to join in. Bring my camera. SIt behind the scenes and take it all it in. When ever I showed up he would say “Cyndi Lenz is good people.”

Here is some fun video of “sound check from I think the last RPM show at weston.

Larry Hoppen with John Cafferty and James Montgomery at the Newport Blues Cage in Newport RI Rock4Christmas Tour

As I sit here and cry I miss this guy so much. He was a mensch. One of the good guys.

Here is Larry and Joe Bouchard from Blue Oyster Cult

We miss you!

Here is Tommy, Larry is playing bass. What fun! hahaha

Larry Hoppen from #orleans at the Newport Blues Cafe, Newport Rhode Island.

cyndi lenz

psych nurse, documentary filmmaker, photographer, crazed river warrior of the Indian River Lagoon.

Category Archives: music

Joshua Gone Barbados, Still Big Sugar! Will it ever end?

We miss you Larry Hoppin!

Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

Happy Birthday Bette Midler singalong

Lessons learned from Phil Ochs

Happy Birthday Tom Glazer. Innocent times. Sing along!

We miss you Larry Hoppin!