Companeros.....by Ewan McColl.

[TheBigGuy]

Im listening t an excellent CD by the Scots folky Dick Gaughan...Live in Edinburgh...hes doint a great job with this song by Ewan McColll...the legend of Fidel Castro and Che Guevera.....

The good ship Granma lies at anchor in the harbour
Waiting for the evening tide to bring high water
It's bound for Cuba she must go across the Gulf of Mexico
And the Caribbean ocean
She's carrying a human cargo,
Eighty-three good compañeros
Each one burning with determination to be free

Against Batista, the Fidelistas
Courage was their only armour
As they fought at Fidel's side
With Che Guevara

Ten days out from Mexico these compañeros
Landed on the Cuban beach Los Colorados
Fidel said, this year will see our country and its people free
Or else we will be martyrs
We've only guns enough for twenty,
the enemy has arms a-plenty
Meet him then defeat him and he'll keep us well supplied

Five weeks later in the Canyon Del Arroyo
The people's army numbered eighteen compañeros
Hungry, weak, but unafraid,
They're learning Revolution's trade
In the high Sierra Maestra
And in the mountains winds are blowing
Bearing seeds of hope and sowing
Crops in Cuban earth that mark the birth of victory

On compañeros, to El Uvero!
Courage was their only armour
As they fought at Fidel's side
With Che Guevara

They fought their way across the peak of El Turquino
Joined by peasant bands and men from Santiago
They faced Batista's tanks and planes
And drove them down into the plains
From the high Sierra Maestra
They drove the gangsters from Las Villas
Straight across the Cordilleras
Santa Clara fell to Che Guevara and was free

The fire lit on that Cuban beach by Fidel Castro
Shines all the way to Tierra del Fuego
Its sparks are blown upon the breeze
And men rise up from off their knees
When they see the night is burning
It blazes up in Venezuela, Bolivia and Guatemala
Lights the road that men must go in order to be free

On compañeros, Americanos!
For a peoples' free America
Fidel has shown the way with Che Guevara


Yeah, we know the reality of the Cuban revolution..that it was actually pretty repressive, but this song is more about the idealism of a revolutionary struggle. Great tune.