Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been

Subject: Lyrics Request
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 10:57 AM

I am looking for lyrics to two songs
"john cooke" & "are you now or have you ever been?
thank you

Subject: RE: john cooke & 'are you now or have you ever been?'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 11:30 AM

Hi - A search here shows we have a few songs containing the phrase "are you now or have you ever." Can you give us more specific information on the song you want - recording artist? Phrases from the song? Style of music.

We have Let's Have a Peal for John Cooke's Soul. Is that the one you seek? If not, please give us more specific information.

Song titles can be misleading.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: john cooke & 'are you now or have you ever been?'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 02:21 PM

This looks like it would be a good song to add to our collection, even if GUEST never comes back.

Pieced together from sound samples:

ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN (excerpt)
Charlie King

...American Express thought they might build a factory
To make and track their credit cards--
Two thousand jobs for honest and hard-workin' folk
Who'd never use the cards they'd make all day;
But they wouldn't pick a city for their plant until they'd asked
A question I recall from way back when:
To head off conflict and subversion,
They asked ev'ry working person
"Are you now or have you ever been?"

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?
Are you now or have you ever been?"
Well, I never thought I'd see the day
I'd hear those words come 'round again:
"Are you now or have you ever been?"....

[Sung by Charlie King on "Food Phone Gas Lodging" (Flying Fish, FF-70536, 1989) and by Anne Feeney on "Union Maid"]

[Musically, this is a strange song. Many of the "lines" go on and on without a rhyme or pause to give you a clue where to put in line breaks.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 02:45 PM

Hey Jim

If that is an excerpt, could you post the whole sometime?

I like it ...



cheers,

dennis
http://www.mts.net/~oakacorn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 04:04 PM

Dr. Word: I don't have the whole song. I constructed that excerpt by transcribing sound samples that I found online. Many online CD vendors provide sound samples, that is, 30-second or so excerpts of songs that you can play. For example, allmusic (which is usually the first place I look), Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Yahoo! Shopping > Music. Sometimes you can get a bit more than 30 seconds by listening to several samples from different websites, or from different albums.

I do this mainly because I think it helps other people recognize the song. I think it often happens that someone doesn't recognize the song from the title alone, but they do when they see the excerpt.

Maybe I'm wrong--maybe I could accomplish the same thing by typing "refresh"--but there have been dozens of times when I've refreshed a thread by posting an excerpt of the lyrics, and someone else soon afterwards posted the whole song. Some examples:
THE NAME OF THE GAME IS STUD (Tom Paxton)
HEART OF THE LAND (Eric Bogle)
BLUEGRASS BLUES (from The O'Kanes)

Some people don't get it. I started keeping track of this phenomenon when someone asked me (with apparent contempt): What good does it do to post only an excerpt of a song? That's not answering the question!

Now I will bookmark THIS thread, and refer to it the next time somebody doesn't get why I do it.

Subject: ADD: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? (C. King)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jun 07 - 03:26 PM

Sometimes, it takes years for somebody to respond and add to one of Jim's excerpts - but it took Jim's excerpt for me to discover the need for lyrics to this song. Thanks, Jim.

ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN?
©1986 by Charlie King
Pied Asp Music (BMI)

I was listening to my radio, a news report from Louisville,
American Express thought they might build a factory
To make and track their credit cards:
Two thousand jobs for honest and hard-workin' folks
Who'll never use the cards they make all day.
But they wouldn't pick a city for their plant until they'd asked
A question I recall from way back when.
To head off conflict and subversion, they asked every working person,
"Are you now or have you ever been?"

CHORUS:
Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?
Are you now or have you ever been?
Well, I never thought I'd see the day
I'd hear those words come 'round again:
"Are you now or have you ever been?"

Hard at work, but soft on unions, that's the average Louisvillian,
American Expressly stated in their press release.
The site selection test committee recommends some other city
Where business rolls in profits
And the unions rest in peace.
And every day that question grows a little more familiar,
As another union battle flag descends,
Ask any airline traffic tracker,
Millwright, miner, or meat packer,
"Are you now or have you ever been?"

CHORUS:
Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?
Did your father, mother, sister, brother
Wear a union pin?
Well I never thought I'd see the day
I'd hear those words come 'round again:
"Are you now or have you ever been?"

Corporate planners dutifully bought the folks of Louisville
A one-way nowhere fare on the American Express.
Will we leave the drivin' to the bosses,
Make concessions, take the losses,
This union's got the Disappearin' Railroad Blues unless...
We dare to use the power we've been sittin' on for years,
We are strong enough to call their bluff, my friends.
They can take their lousy plant and shove it,
Yes, I'm Union, damn proud of it,
I am now and I have always been.

CHORUS:
Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?
With your sisters and your brothers, will you struggle to be free?
When the question comes around, will you stand in solidarity.
I am now and I will always be.

Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?
Are you now or have you ever been?

transcribed by ear from Charlie King's 1989 Food, Phone, Gas, Lodging CD. The CD has lyrics, but the last page of my CD booklet is missing.


When I did security clearance investigations, I was supposed to ask, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of an organization that seeks to overthrow the United States Government by violent means?" The question used to be, "Are you now or have you been a member of the Communist Party USA?" - but that one got thrown out by the courts. Because of the question's McCarthy roots, I could never bring myself to ask it in either form, so I toned it down.

Powerful song, isn't it?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jun 07 - 03:44 PM

Can anybody find any information about the incident that led to this song?
Did they really ask questions like that about union membership?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:56 PM

According to these interviewing guidelines published by the University of Minnesota, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union?" is a prohibited question when interviewing a job applicant.

According to an article in The Hill, lawyers for James Tobin, former aide to Bill Frist, proposed to use that exact question, among others, to screen undesirables (i.e. Democrats) from the jury which was to try Tobin for conspiring to violate voters' rights.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: GUEST,Jim Carroll
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 02:53 AM

Off Topic, but was reminded by title of this thread.
Sometime in the early 60s a play was issued on LP called 'The Investigator' in which Sen. McCarthy died in a plane crash, went to heaven and began 'investigating' the angels.
Was finally thrown out when he demanded that 'The Boss' appear before his committee.
I think it was issued by Caedmon, but would appreciate ant information, author, date etc.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 08:57 AM

"The Investigator" was a controversial radio play, written by Reuben Ship, and broadcast on CBC Radio in 1954. It was issued as an LP by Discuriosities in 1954; reissued by Broadside Records, New York, in 1966; and as a CD by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Washington DC, 2003. It was also published in book form, by Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1956; and by Oriole Editions, New York, 1969.

This information from WorldCat and from Wikipedia (see the article Reuben Ship).

You can listen to the play at The Journal for Multimedia History, which also has a long article about the play.

The Archives of the CBC is offering recordings for sale, and has a 4-minute sound clip.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 01:19 PM

Thanks a million Jim - a lifetimes ambition realised,
Jim Carroll