Dedicated: To the 28%: We Didn't Know--The Mitchell Trio

[NoFederales]

I invite you to dust off some of those old early 1960's albums, or find them re-mastered on CD. I know reading lyrics is hardly the same as listening to them in song, but here are the words anyway.

We Didn’t Know, The Mitchell Trio
The Album: That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be/Violets of Dawn

We didn’t know it all
We didn’t see a thing
You can’t hold us to blame
What could we do?
It was a terrible shame
But we can’t bear the blame
Oh no, not us, we didn’t know.

We didn’t know said the burgermeister
About those camps on the edge of town
It was Hitler and his crew tore the German Nation down
We saw the cattle cars it’s true
And maybe they carried a Jew or two
They woke us up as they rattled through
What did you expect me to do?

We didn’t know it all
We didn’t see a thing
You can’t hold us to blame
What could we do?
It was a terrible shame
But we can’t bear the blame
Oh no, not us, we didn’t know.

We didn’t know said the congregation
Singing their hymn in a Church of white
The Press was full of lies about us
Preacher told us we were right
The outside agitators came
They burned some Churches and they put
The blame on decent Southern names
To set our colored folks aflame
Maybe some of our boys got hot
And a couple of niggers and reds got shot
They should have stayed where they belong
Preacher would have told us if we’d done wrong.

We didn’t know it all
We didn’t see a thing
You can’t hold us to blame
What could we do?
It was a terrible shame
But we can’t bear the blame
Oh no, not us, we didn’t know.

We didn’t know said the puzzled voter
Watching the President on TV
I guess we gotta drop those bombs
If we’re gonna keep South Asia free
The President’s such a peaceful man
I guess he’s got some kind of plan
They say we’re torturing prisoners of war
But I don’t believe that stuff no more
Torturing prisoners is a Communist game
And you can bet they’re doing the same
I wish this war were over and through
But what do you expect me to do?


We didn’t know it all
We didn’t see a thing
You can’t hold us to blame
What could we do?
It was a terrible shame
But we can’t bear the blame
Oh no, not us, we didn’t know.

Where are the vocal artists today? Is the Media really that powerful to drown out all dissent?

NoFederales

[grasswire]

1. the Chad Mitchell Trio? (eom)

[NoFederales]

2. When Chad Mitchell left the group, it remained known as The Mitchell

Trio, comprised of Mike Kobluk, Joe Frazier, and John Denver (who replaced Chad Mitchell).

NoFederales

[kineneb]

3. still have one of their albums- A Mighty Day on Campus

or something like that. Grandma had the album with "The Ides of Texas"(about Billy Sol Estes). I grew up listening to them.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Their backup guitarist was Paul Prestopino

Who now plays backup for Peter Paul and Mary.
A very talented guy -- I've talked to him.