Barry's Boys Lyrics

We're the bright young men, who want to go back to Nineteen-Ten, we're Barry's boys.
We're the kids with a cause, yes a government like grandmama's, we're Barry's boys.
We're the new kind of youth at your alma mater,
Back to silver standards and solid Goldwater
Back to when the poor were poor and rich were rich
And you felt so damn secure just knowing which were which.
We're the kids who agree to be social without security, we're Barry's boys
'Cause his hat's in the ring where Westbrook Pegler once was king, now he's too left wing
So if you don't recognize any old Red China, or Canada, or Britain, or South Carolina
You too can join the crew, Tippecanoe and Nixon too
Back with Barry, back to cash and carry, back with Barry's boys.

"Why did the chicken cross the road? To get from the left to the right...Right.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, Walter Lippmann's a pinko, too." You got it, Joe.
"A-la-ka-nee, ka-nah, ka-nay, let's investigate the PTA."
"Barry, Barry, make your bid, I love John Birch, but oh you kid."
"Mother, mother, wear a grin, and don't complain, or we'll turn you in."
"Hold the presses, stop the mail, the Pentagon's having a one-cent sale."
"What's the latest news statistic? Hootenannies are socialistic."
"Shut the door and lock and latch it, here comes Lizzie with a brand new hatchet"
Back with Barry's Boys.

We're the kids full of nerve as long as it's conservative, we're Barry's boys
And we can't comprehend why our parents aren't friendlier to Barry's boys
Why Dad once crusaded for Sacco/Vanzetti,
Now all we're doing is doing the same for John Paul Getty
Our parents emulated Roosevelt and Farley
But we just want to grow up to be like Ev and Charlie
No college days with Socrates or Plato, when you're Barry's boys
Just organize parades for the abolishment of NATO
And the rest, the entire West
So let's go back to the days when men were men, and start the First World War all over again
That's right you tell 'em son: 'Isolationism can be fun!'
Back with Barry, back to cash and carry, back with Barry's...

"And remember, 'I'm an American first, and a politician second'. . . Spoken like a true American politician" Back with Barry, not with Lyndon, Ike or Harry, back with Barry's boys.

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NOTES - Since some of the references are now nearly 170 years old, a little explanation goes a long way
toward making the lyrics understandable in 2009 nearly 45 years after they were written.

1). Westbrook Pegler - Early 20th Century newspaperman and strong anti-communist.

2). Tippecanoe and Nixon too - Play on words on “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” the title of a campaign song
used successfully in the 1840 presidential election to propel William Henry Harrison to the White House.

3). Walter Lippmann - Early 20th Century newspaperman and strong anti-communist, who after WW II posited
a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and who later came out against the Vietnam War.

4). “here comes Lizzie with a brand new hatchet” - 1890s axe-murderess Lizzie Borden. Probably self-
promotional, as The Chad Mitchell Trio’s Mighty Day On Campus album carries the song “Lizzie
Borden”.

5). Sacco/Vanzetti - Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Two Italian-born anarchists tried,
convicted, and executed for the 1920 robbery and murder of a payroll guard in Braintree, Mass. The trial was
thought to be unfair and many famous socialist intellectuals campaigned for a new trial, but were
unsuccessful.

6). John Paul Getty - Named by Forbes magazine as the richest living American in 1957.

7). Roosevelt and Farley - Franklin D. Roosevelt and James A. Farley. FDR was the 32nd President of the US.
Farley was his campaign manager.

8). Ev and Charlie - Senator Everett Dirksen (R - Illinois) and Representative Charles Halleck (R - Indiana) were
the face of the Republican Party for most of the 1960s. Their frequent appearances on television news and talk
programs earned them the sobriquet of “The Ev and Charlie Show”.

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