DELIVER THE GOODS (PETE SEEGER/BESS LOMAX HAWES)

THE ALMANAC SINGERS, 1942: BESS HAWES, PETE SEEGER, MILLARD LAMPELL, WOODY GUTHRIE, ARTHUR STERN, SIS CUNNINGHAM (left to right)

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"Deliver the Goods" is a Seeger original.

Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes for "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 96.

Lyrics as recorded by THE ALMANAC SINGERS, New York, NY, c. Feb 1942, and reprinted ibid., p. 105
(Minor corrections by Manfred Helfert).

ORIGINAL ISSUE: "DEAR MR. PRESIDENT," Keynote K-307-A (KEYNOTE ALBUM 111), 1942.
[PETE SEEGER, lead vocal]

It's gonna take everybody to win this war
The butcher and the baker and the clerk in the store.
The guys who sail the ships, and the guys who run the trains
And the farmer raisin' wheat upon the Kansas plains.

The butcher, the baker, the tinker and the tailor
Will all work behind the soldier and the sailor.
We're workin' in the cities, we're workin' in the woods
And we'll all work together to deliver the goods.

Now, me and my boss, we never did agree
If a thing helped him then it didn't help me.
But when a burglar tries to bust into your house
You stop fighting with the landlord and throw him out.

I got a new job and I'm workin' overtime
Turning out tanks on the assembly line.
Gotta crank up the factories like the President said
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

I bet this tank will look mighty fine
Punching holes in Mr. Hitler's line.
And if Adolph wakes up after the raid
He'll find every piece of shrapnel says "U.S.A."

From New York City to Frisco Bay
We're speedin' up production every day.
And every time a wheel goes around
It carries Mr. Hitler to the burying ground.

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