| Andorra
Take
me to Andorra Andorra Andorra
Take me to Andorra
It's the land that I adore
They spend four dollars and ninety cents
On armanents and their defence
Did you ever see such confidence
Andorra hip hooray
-- In the mountains of the Pyrenees there's an independent state
Population five thousand - I think they're simply great
It's only a few square miles around but that's the place for me
They spend less than five dollars on armaments so this I've got to see
-- Their leaders are a council, simple men but wise
Spend less than five dollars on armaments the rest on cakes and pies
No tanks no guns no missiles no planes to sweep the sky
Only a box of fireworks for the fourth day of July (see below)
-- So I went down to Westminster my newspaper in hand
I spoke to every member of Maggie Thatcher's band
I said, See what they've done in Andorra they put us all to shame
If they can do it so can we, we`ll get there just the same
-- But the general said, My dear boy you just don't understand
We need these things to feel secure in our great and glorious land
I said, If security's what you need I'll buy a couch for you
A psychiatrist is cheaper and a damn sight safer too
(as
sung by Iain MacKintosh & Hamish Imlach)
note:
Andorra
[1990:] Some years ago we discovered that in Monaco the state orchestra
is bigger than the state army. Then we discovered there is a place in
Europe even better than that, twenty years before perestroika. In Andorra,
the whole state army fit into a telephone kiosk. They haven't really got
any, they just put on their uniforms once a year.
(Intro Hamish Imlach)
[1993:] You can make up a song out of many an item in the newspaper. The
journalist has already done half your job for you. [...] Malvina Reynolds
was similarly helped to write Andorra. It was a three-inch item in the
New York Times. Years later I met the newspaper reporter in Andorra. He
knew just what he was doing. [...] There's two verses I added [nos. 3
and 4 above; he leaves out Reynolds' no. 3
They live by the arts of farm and field, and by
making shoes and hats
And they haven't got room in their tiny land for a horde of diplomats
They haven't got room in their tiny land for armies to march about
And if anyone comes with a war budget they throw the rascals out]
On the fourth day of July - their independence
day, not America's, of course.
(Seeger, Flowers 111f) |
