WASHINGTON BREAKDOWN (PETE SEEGER/LEE HAYS) (1941)
(Tune: "Ida Red")

THE ALMANAC SINGERS, 1941: WOODY GUTHRIE, LEE HAYS, MILLARD LAMPELL, PETE SEEGER
(left to right)

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The third verse refers to Vito Marcantonio, a Congressman from East Harlem who supported radical causes.
Financier J. P. Morgan symbolized the capitalist evils of the 'money trust' that gave major corporations and financial institutions enormous political clout.
Republican Wendell Wilkie unsuccessfully ran against Roosevelt in the November 1940 Presidential campaign. Although supported by many isolationists, Wilkie generally agreed with Roosevelt's foreign policy.

Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes for "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 77.

As recorded by the ALMANAC SINGERS (PETE SEEGER, solo), coupled with "'C' for Conscription", New York, NY, mid-March 1941, lyrics as reprinted (with minor corrections by Manfred Helfert) in Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes for "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 84.
ORIGINAL ISSUE: SONGS FOR JOHN DOE," Almanac 1102-A (Almanac Records Album 102), May 1941; reissued on "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996.

Franklin D., listen to me,
You ain't a-gonna send me 'cross the sea,
'Cross the sea, 'cross the sea, You ain't a-gonna send me 'cross the sea.

You may say it's for defense,
But that kinda talk that I'm against.
I'm against, I'm against,
That kinda talk ain't got no sense.

Lafayette, we are here, we're gonna stay right over here...

Marcantonio is the best, but I wouldn't give a nickel for all the rest...

J. P. Morgan's big and plump, eighty-four inches around the rump...

Wendell Wilkie and Franklin D., seems to me they both agree,
Both agreed, both agreed,
Both agree on killin' me.

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