Working Class Hero - Georgie Jessup

Working Class Hero

Produced by The Wimp and Georgie Jessup
Engineered and mixed by The Wimp
Photo credits – Donnerlieschen Roesch
Art Direction – C. Maxwell-Hadley
Recorded May 21 – 24, 2007
Remixed & mastered by Steve Carr

All songs by Georgie Jessup Mauler © 2007 winkte music/ASCAP
Except Working Class Hero by John Lennon EMI Music Publishing

Dedicated to Petie 1980 – November 1981

Lyrics

Petie’s Song (They Killed My Dog Ma)

It is called Petie’s Song in tribute to my spirit dog who only got to be on this earth less than two years. He was loved by hundreds of people which is amazing considering how long he was on this earth. He continued to come to me after his death and guided me to Lame Deer, then Fools Crow, and to other pups that became my family. One friend commented that “he was such a wise soul”, and his spirit certainly was wise and old. But it kind of took me back that someone would describe him that way considering that he was still a pup when he left this earth.

He died after a freak accident. The Dogma came in because we took him to a vet in Columbia named Dr. Gross (should have been a clue). It was a Sunday when we found Petie and Gross was the only vet we could get. When we got there the place was empty. He commented that he was a young dog and he might lose the back leg but he thought he’d be okay. He said he would start the treatments once he got the xrays.

Hours went by and he had still done nothing. He claimed that he had emergencies, which told us Petie was not in the emergency category. We finally made arrangements to get him to another vet who would give him immediate care. Gross said he’d have him ready with a splint and I.V. He did neither and insisted we pay up before we take him. I could see he had gone into shock and time was of an urgency. Petie took his last breath in my arms.

Karma – “she should be careful your Karma does not run over her dogma”, a good friend said that to me once in reference to an ex-relationship I had been dealing with. My belief that vets cared about the animals they treated was clearly dogma on my part, but Petie assured me Karma would take care of Dr. Gross. I wanted to go confront him and it would have led to lots of bad results for me. So, I got this song out of a very sad experience in my life.

The song became a kind of autobiography about growing up with the worst kind of dogma there is – religious dogma. The part about the church roof really happen the day I was supposed to be baptized. They had to move that event to the Priest’s house.

I have had six dogs since Petie left this world but he still continues to guide me to this day!

Lyrics

Verse:
Day I was Born there was a mighty storm.
Now the church roof’s gone. So, the bells won’t chime.
The people cried, cried, cried, lord they cried.
Sister Mary lied, “That child’s not mine.”

Chorus:
They killed my dog ma. They killed my dog.
Killed my dog ma

Verse:
I read the bible. I go to church.
I hear the preacher but it still hurts.
He says that Jesus was born a man.
What his daddy dealt him was a dead man’s hand.

Chorus:
They killed my dog ma. They killed my dog.
Killed my dog ma

Verse:
I know what’s coming and lord it’s coming fast.
We all got cars but not enough gas.
We drive, drive, drive, but we go nowhere.
They’ve killed my dog ma that’s just not fair!

They killed my dog ma. They killed my dog.
Oh that Kar, damn that kar ma
It hit my dog ma. It hit my dog.
Killed my dog ma. It killed my dog!

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / organ
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar
Jonathan Malfi – drums
Aaron (Scribe) Yealdhall – backup vocals

It Takes Nothing

I wrote It Takes Nothing originally when I was with the group Wavelength. My ex and I had traveled to Pine Ridge South Dakota in 1983. When I returned home the muses sent me a ton of songs. This was one of them.

I wrote it after reflecting on the things I learned from the elders there. The last verse really says it all and this should be repeated over and over to all of our politicians until they get it!

Lyrics

Verse:
Don’t want power, don’t want your pain.
I only want to live my life so that spirit will remain.
Don’t need your money, I’m not your whore.
I’ve had enough of your forked tongue lies to last a million years or more!

Chorus:
‘Cause it takes nothing, to give a man his pride.
Nothing, judge her on how she rides.
Nothing, if the greedy man steps aside!
Nothing, it takes nothing.

Verse:
Never asked for directions, I never asked for the car.
Got feet for walking, you know they’ve taken me this far.
You think loves for liars, talking behind closed doors.
You think Money buys you everything, you think it evens up the score!

Repeat chorus

Verse:
GOD said to man, “Here’s everything you’ll ever need!”
Man, never being satisfied said, “greed is my need.”
Food, clothing, and shelter, what it takes to survive!
There was a time you never owed another man to keep your body alive!

Repeat chorus

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / organ / bullhorn
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar
Jonathan Malfi – drums
Aaron (Scribe) Yealdhall – back up vocals

Where The Buffalo Roam

This song was also recorded on American Holocaust in 1994. Justin laid down a nice groove that was different from the 1994 recording and I wanted to capture that before Justin moved to L.A.

The lyrics say it all. It is a History lesson that needs to be heard!

Lyrics

Verse:
Nothing is black or white when you take your first breath.
If you’re searching for the new frontier you can’t go west
See the faces, in a land full of bones.
This dream’s gone crazy ‘cause this is not a home

Chorus:
In the land where the buffalo roam
I’m free.
Yanipi Kta O’wancha’ ya
In the land where the buffalo roam

Verse:
Took it from the black hills, it’s in the banks of their souls.
Made a lot of rich men from blood on that gold.
They took the Paha Sapa, really fucked it up.
Carved the face of more lies, monuments to genocide.

Repeat Chorus

Bridge:
They don’t believe – when we sing about love
They don’t believe – when we say we want peace.
They don’t believe – when we tell them that it’s freedom.
In the land where the buffalo roam.

Repeat first verse and chorus to outro:
For the Cheyenne and Arapaho
For the Crow and Lakota
For the Pawnee and Comanche
For the Kiowa and Omaha

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / organ / bullhorn
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar / Back up vocals
Jonathan Malfi – drums
Aaron (Scribe) Yealdhall – back up vocals
Lori Grigsby and Sandy Moyer – back up vocals

Fools Crow

I recorded this song on Winkte & Crazy Sacred Dogs and American Holocaust but I never cared for the bridge I had written. This Bridge and arrangement really kicks some butt. Again the Wimp complimented the energy and power of the words. Fools Crow was an amazing Holy Man and he saved my life!

Lyrics

Verse:
Eyes that see right through me, a heart that feels the pain.
A smile that’s gonna heal with a love that never ends.
His body’s in his Mother Earth, his spirit’s in the sky,
Will you come to see me one day, will you teach me how to fly?

Chorus:
Fools Crow, Fools Crow

Verse:
I wish that I could feel you, I’d love to kiss your hands.
Just to sit and listen to a wise and holy man.
I’ll bet you’d tell me something to help me understand.
The power of the wisdom before I’m buried in this land.

Chorus:
Fools Crow, Fools Crow

Bridge:
Hollow Bone I will become.
Your voice I hear with the morning sun.
You lived your life in a simple way.
The road you walked I begin today.

Verse:
Fasting up on Bear Butte, praying on the hill
Makes a person wonder why man still has to kill.
Everything that tries to live, everything that moves too slow.
You took the time to look inside yourself you let that ego go.

Chorus:
Fools Crow, Fools Crow

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar
Jonathan Malfi – drums
Lori Grigsby and Sandy Moyer – back up vocals

Hoka Hey

I actually added the last verse/chorus in 2010 but if you want to sing along use the first three verse/chorus’. I think I changed a couple of words there too.

I also changed the title to Hoka Hey (Tribute to A.I.M.). There were so many warriors in the original A.I.M., but then their importance seemed to feed their egos. Still, the American Indian Movement was much needed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Wasicu is the Lakota word for “white man” or the Eruo-Americans who were greedheads because it translates to ‘Fat Takers”. The Lakota notice that the Americans always had to take the best for themselves.

This song can also be found on my American Holocaust album and it is another that the Wimp and I improved on. The lyric changes made a big difference too, but we captured the intensity of the lyrics with the arrangement as well. The lyrics speak for themselves.

Lyrics

Somewhere where the pavement turns to sand.
I’m gonna walk out and make a stand.
Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Jesus,
It’s a power deal, they have to kill us.

I can’t believe what they’ve done to the babies.
I can’t believe what they’ve done to you.
Get up, stand up, get up, stand up.
Hoka Hey Hoka Hey

Wasicu comin’ after you
Count some coup on the wasicu
Bureaucratic Genocide
But they can’t kill us, we keep coming back alive.

I can’t believe what they’ve done to the mountains.
I can’t believe what they put in the sea.
Get up, stand up, get up, stand up.
Hoka Hey Hoka Hey…

Let the Thunderbirds flap their wings.
It ain’t over ‘til Heyoka sing.
Martin Luther, Anna Mae, and Jesus,
Its a power deal, they have to kill us.

I can’t believe what we’ve done to Creation.
Can’t believe they call it humanity.
Get up, stand up, get up, stand up.
Hoka Hey Hoka Hey

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / organ
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar / back up vocals
Jonathan Malfi – drums / back up vocals
Aaron (Scribe) Yealdhall – back up vocals

Find Some Love (on your own)

I wrote this song when I was in Winkte & Crazy Sacred Dogs. Again Justin came up with a great rhythm section and I came up with some new tricks myself.

This song shows my Allen Toussaint/Meters influence. At least that is what I was going for. I love that music. I started the song when Apartheid was still going strong in South Africa, sometime around the late 1980s. When I formed Winkte & Crazy Sacred Dogs we started performing the song live and I do have some live recording s of us doing it. This is the first “studio” recording I ever made of it. I do plan on recording sometime in the future because I need some Staple Singers back ups and probably an Allen Toussaint influenced horn section.

Lately I have not been writing much. This song says it all and gets to the crux of the matter. When folks ask me why I have not written any new songs lately, I always respond that I am not sure what else I can say different. No matter what decade the issues are always the same. GREED!

Lyrics

Verse:
Black man living down in Africa
Saying something’s very, very wrong
You won’t read about it in the Wall Street Journal
You won’t hear it from your Uncle Thomas

Chorus:
You gotta reach down in your heart.
Reach down in your heart.
And find some love on your own.

Verse:
Forest are burning in South America
They say the cows need more space.
But you won’t find out the jungle is dying.
As you drive through that burger place.

Repeat Chorus
Bridge:
You have to open your eyes and see.
There is a world full of mystery.
Be all that you can be.
But don’t’ reach for a savior to set you free.

Verse:
I know this man with all the money in the world.
He’s got everything he don’t need.
Tried to feed starving people.
With his own heartache and misery.

Repeat Chorus

Credits:

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / organ / bullhorn
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar
Jonathan Malfi – drums
Lori Grigsby and Sandy Moyer – back up vocals

Working Class Hero

Justin Crown found this bass line that set the rhythm so rockin’ and funky, that alone has to make this version one of the top ten covers of John Lennon’s classic angry young man songs!

That said, one day I want to re cut my vocals because I think I could do better. Other than that it’s perfect! John’s word are so strong and true. Make you think there might be something to the book Who Killed John Lennon.

Lyrics

As soon as you’re born, they make you feel small.
By giving you no time instead of it all
‘Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working-class hero is something to be.
A working-class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school.
They hate you if you’re cleaver and despise a fool.
Till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules
A working-class hero is something to be
A working-class hero is something to be

When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years.
Then they expect you to pick a career.
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working-class hero is something to be.
A working-class hero is something to be.

SOLO
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV.
And you think you’re so cleaver and classless and free.
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.
A working-class hero is something to be
A working-class hero is something to be

Credits:

Words and Music by John Lennon EMI Music Publishing

Georgie Jessup – vocals / piano / bullhorn
Justin (The Wimp) Crown – bass / guitar
Jonathan Malfi – drums

Talkin’ To Myself

I had to put this version as a bonus track on this reissue. Again, some of the lyrics are different. This version was taken from three different live recordings. The intro of the band by Jim Patton (Edge City) is from one show. The end “Winkte & Crazy Sacred Dogs” is house sound engineer Craig Hopwood. He is actually introducing us, but we put him at the end when we were heading off stage! I had to correct a major screw up I did on the original March version so Steve worked his magic and I actually sang the first line of the song in his studio on October 4, 2018.

This is another song that is also on the 1994 American Holocaust CD. Sometimes I do feel like I am talking to myself. Anyway, this was the first time I did the story introduction. The story came to me in a dream. I originally wanted the Crazy Sacred Dogs to make American Holocaust with me but they moved on to other projects before we could get things going.

This live recording was spontaneous. I don’t remember if I had actually planned it out other than a loose meeting before we did the song. Sometimes the magic happens that way.

Lyrics

Verse:
I can hear the thunder of wasicu guns.
Hear the children screamin’ mothers dyin’ on the run.
I can see the eagle watch it fly into the sun.
She’s cryin’ for her brother when all is said and done.

Chorus:
I don’t know why I sing this song.
I don’t know why I sing the blues.
Am I just talking to myself?
Talkin’ Talkin’ to myself!

Verse:
Can we change this madness, heal the human race?
It’s happened since the white man ran over this place.
When you talk with Seven Arrows, learn the wisdom of the way.
Understand the circle, try to live it every day.

Repeat Chorus

Verse.
Madmen are the leaders, (with their) sick little minds.
Why do they fear the circle, why do they wait in line?
You should not live-in fear of the man and his might.
Say you stand for freedom and fight the good fight!

Credits:

Winkte & Crazy Sacred Dogs
Recorded live at the 8X10 Club in Baltimore, MD March 1992

Georgie Jessup – lead vocals / piano
El Torro Gamble – drums / back up vocals
Barry Warsaw – bass guitar
Tommy Derr – guitar / back up vocals
Kathy Knight – back up vocals
Linda Morris – back up vocals
Albert Margolis – organ
Remix & Mastered by Steve Carr