Bruce Springsteen - Mrs McGrath

Lundi 4 mai 2009 1 04 /05 /2009 05:40

Bruce Springsteen - Mrs McGrath

From The Seeger Sessions, here’s Bruce Springsteen’s live version of another anti-war song associated with Seeger, Mrs McGrath.

It's a myth that Seeger was so insensed when Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival that he tried to cut the power cable with an axe. Seeger says, "Electric music is the vernacular of the second half of the twentieth century... but I couldn't understand the words. I wanted to hear the words. It was a great song, "Maggie's Farm," and the sound was distorted. I ran over to the guy at the controls and shouted, "Fix the sound so you can hear the words." He hollered back, "This is the way they want it." I said "Damn it, if I had an axe, I'd cut the cable right now."http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1214/27/

Bruce Springsteen - Mrs. McGrath Live in Dublin

Mrs. McGrath," the sergeant said,
"Would you like a soldier
of your son, Ted?
With a scarlet cloak and a fine cocked hat,
Mrs. McGrath wouldn't you like that?"

Mrs. McGrath lived on the shore
And after seven years or more
she spied a ship coming into the bay
with her son from far away

"Oh, Captain dear, where have you been.
Have you been out sailin' on the Mediteren'.
Have you any news of my son Ted.
Is he livin' or is he dead?"

Now came Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
Saying "My God Ted is it you?"

"Now were you drunk or were you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
That wore your two fine legs away?"

"No I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind.
a cannon ball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs away."

"Now Teddy boy," the widow cried
"Your two fine legs was your mother's pride
Them stumps of a tree won't do at all
Why didn't you run from the cannon ball?"

All foreign wars, I do proclaim
Live on blood and a mother's pain
I'd rather have my son as he used to be
than the king of America and his whole navy