MySongbook

down Susannes Folksong-Notizen English Notes

Andorra

Take me to Andorra Andorra Andorra
Take me to Andorra
It's the land that I adore
They spend four dollars and ninety cents
On armanents and their defence
Did you ever see such confidence
Andorra hip hooray

In the mountains of the Pyrenees there's an independent state
Population five thousand - I think they're simply great
It's only a few square miles around but that's the place for me
They spend less than five dollars on armaments so this I've got to see
Their leaders are a council, simple men but wise
Spend less than five dollars on armaments the rest on cakes and pies
No tanks no guns no missiles no planes to sweep the sky
Only a box of fireworks for the fourth day of July (see below)
So I went down to Westminster my newspaper in hand
I spoke to every member of Maggie Thatcher's band
I said, See what they've done in Andorra they put us all to shame
If they can do it so can we, we`ll get there just the same
But the general said, My dear boy you just don't understand
We need these things to feel secure in our great and glorious land
I said, If security's what you need I'll buy a couch for you
A psychiatrist is cheaper and a damn sight safer too

(as sung by Iain MacKintosh & Hamish Imlach)

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

Andorra

english [1990:] Some years ago we discovered that in Monaco the state orchestra is bigger than the state army. Then we discovered there is a place in Europe even better than that, twenty years before perestroika. In Andorra, the whole state army fit into a telephone kiosk. They haven't really got any, they just put on their uniforms once a year.
(Intro Hamish Imlach)

english [1993:] You can make up a song out of many an item in the newspaper. The journalist has already done half your job for you. [...] Malvina Reynolds was similarly helped to write Andorra. It was a three-inch item in the New York Times. Years later I met the newspaper reporter in Andorra. He knew just what he was doing. [...] There's two verses I added [nos. 3 and 4 above; he leaves out Reynolds' no. 3

They live by the arts of farm and field, and by making shoes and hats
And they haven't got room in their tiny land for a horde of diplomats
They haven't got room in their tiny land for armies to march about
And if anyone comes with a war budget they throw the rascals out]

On the fourth day of July - their independence day, not ours, of course.
(Seeger, Flowers 111f)

english [2006:] Notes: words by Malvina Reynolds, music by Pete Seeger; copyright 1962 Brio Music, renewed 1990. a.k.a. "I Want to Go to Andorra!" Pete Seeger's recording of this song was issued on a CD in 2003 by the Andorran government. Also on the CD is a 1996 speech by the Andorran Foreign Minister given on the occasion of his signing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty at the U. S. State Department in Washington, D.C. (Malvina Reynolds website)