The immigration debate got me thinking about a song my college friend Jesse Davis gave me once on cassette. Jesse comes from a musical family (you can check out his LA-based indie band, The Karabal Nightlife, here)… one of his relatives even composed the score for Star Trek IV (the one with the whales). Anyway, here’s the story of this song, in Jesse’s words:
I don’t know too much about it but from what I understand, my great-grandfather Herb Zwicker started something called the “Black Talent Workshop” in the 70s. He went down to Watts and recruited talented black musicians and recorded some records of their music. I guess he was big on funk and soul music. In addition he had them perform their renditions of some of the songs that he wrote including “Go On Home You Foreign Communist” He was a real character from what I understand. He was a nationalist and a big union leader. In his 60s he was on the news bashing two young Neo-Nazi’s heads together. A real bruiser.
Its a great song though I’m glad its getting some play. I think it’s the great lost soul hit of the 70s.
Needless to say, I’ve uploaded the song for you to hear. It’s truly remarkable how Mr. Zwicker decided that the late-60s/early-70s funk sound was the best idiom for lyrics like: “Hey Commie! I’ma tell you something you should know… this is AMERICA… the country where I was born! You’re not welcome here!” and “Lemme tell you somethin’… I’m a HAAAARD HEART! And I DON’T like COMMIES. So you better get the HELL outta here!”
There’s some pretty killer bass work on the record, too.
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