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We Only Want the Earth - Cornelius Cardew / Peoples Liberation Music
Track Information, musicians and lyrics

1. El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido - Sergio Ortega, English Trans' Cornelius Cardew

From the New Chilean Song Movement, a development of the Popular Unity regime. Quilapayun the Chilean group popularised it when touring Europe at the time of the Pinochet coup in 1973. more

1976 Live, Unity Theatre, London more

2. Will of the People - Laurie Scott Baker

Written in support of the 1974 miners strike.

1975 Workhouse, Old Kent Rd, London

3. Hail Ireland's Glorious Martyrs - John Marcangelo

Written in support of the struggle of the Irish people for national independence.

1977 studio47, London

4. Peat Bog Soldiers - Johann Esser, Wolfgang Langhaff and Goguel

This revolutionary folk song was composed by prisoners in Papenburg, nazi concentration camp to assist the two hour march to and from work.

1977 studio47, London

5. Men Behind the Wire - Paddy McGuigan

Written for the Civil Rights Movement by Paddy McGuigan of the Barlycorns group. Forty years separate these two songs but they both stem from the peoples resistence to oppression.

1977 studio47, London

6. Give Ireland Back to the Irish - Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney

released as a single by Paul & Linda McCartney in 1972 and subsequently banned by the BBC.

1974 studio47, London

7. Revolution is the Main Trend - Cornelius Cardew

Text set in 72 from a statement "People of the World, Unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their Running Dogs" MaoZedong (Cardew later rejected maoism)

1975 Live, Unity Theatre, London more

8. Nothing to Lose but our Chains - Cornelius Cardew

Based Karl Marx's call 'Workers of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains'.

1986 Live, Cardew Memorial Concert, London

9. School Days - Baker, John Tilbury

exposes the use of the education system to instill reactionary ideas in children, in particular the hero worship of establishment figures taught in schools and points out that ordinary people are the real makers of history.

1973 studio47, London

10. Watkinsons' Thirteens - arr Cardew

The period of this song, 1794, was the very infancy of the working class. The workers at Watkinsons' knife factory were forced to make a bakers dozen (13) for every 12 they were paid for. The chorus explains what theywill do with the "odd knife". The concluding lines describe him as "greedy blood sucking wolf".

1982 Live, Cardew Memorial concert, London

11. Smash the Social Contract - Cardew

Like a lot of PLM songs this was written for a specific campaign/issue/event Cornelius wrote this for the Mayday demonstration of 1977, the song opposed the Social Contract which some union leaders entered into with the employers and government in order to keep down wages.

1982 Live, Cardew Memorial concert, London

12. Law of History - Song

Cornelius Cardew wrote this song in 1975 on the occasion of the liberation of Vietnam based on the same Mao statement as Revolution. Later it was the basis for a larger ensemble work Vietnams' Victory.

1976 studio47, London

13. Thälmann Song - Arma

The words were written by Erich Weinert during the campaign to free Ernst Thälmann, secretary of the German Communist Party, imprisoned in 1933. Few prisoners survived the concentration camps and Thälmann was killed at Buchenwald in August 1944 when it seemed he might be liberated by the advancing allied forces.
Cardews piano variations (musicnow CD011) are based on this song.

1975 Live, Unity Theatre, London more

14. Freiheit - Peter Daniel and Karl Ernst

also known as "Thälmann Kolonne was the song of the German International Brigade sung by anti fascist fighters in Spain.

1975 Live, Unity Theatre, London more

15. United Front Song - Brecht/Eisler

written in London 1934 for the international anti fascist movement.

1976 Live, Unity Theatre, London more

16. De Madregada - Ferura

A song from Spain expressing individual love in the context of class struggle.

1977 studio47, London

17. 4 Principles on Ireland - Song - Cardew

Based partly on an old Irish melody, it was written in support of the campaign that a nation oppressing another nation cannot itself be free (Engles). The song became the basis of a later piano work.

1986 Live, Cardew Memorial concert, London

18. British Imperialism Get out of Ireland - Baker

Working people in both countries have become inextricably linked because of the long history of international support for the struggles of peoples.

1976 Rally, South London

19. We Only Want the Earth

James Connolly wrote these words to be sung to the same tune used by the Irish patriot Tomas Davies in the 1840s for his song "A Nation Once Again".

1976 studio47, London