Album: Volunteers (1970)

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• We can be together
  Ah you and me
  We should be together
  
  We are all outlaws in the eyes of America
  In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fred hide and deal
  We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young
  But we should be together
  Come on all you people standing around
  Our life's too fine to let it die
  We can be together
  
  All your private property is target for your enemy
  And your enemy
  Is we
  Da da da da da da da da da
  Da da da da da da da da da
  We are forces of chaos and anarchy
  Everything they say we are we are
  And we are very
  Proud of ourselves
  
  Up against the wall
  Up against the wall fred (motherfucker)
  Tear down the walls
  Tear down the walls
  
  Come on now together
  Get it on together
  Everybody together
  We should be together
  We should be together my friends
  We can be together
  We will be
  
  We must begin here and now
  A new continent of earth and fire
  Tear down the walls
  Tear down the walls
  Tear down the walls
  Tear down the walls
  Tear down the walls
  Won't you try Writer/s: Paul L. Kantner
  Publisher: Wixen Music Publishing
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 10

• Fred from Lost In TimeUp against the wall, m.f. had been what the New York city cops yelled at any ( mostly Black) people they wanted to harrass in the Bedford Steyvesant neighborhood around Columbia Unversity. In the spring of 1968 mostly White students in SDS acting in solidarity with the black community seized buildings and turned the phrase around into a battle cry. See ramparts magazine May or June of 1968.
• Bruce from New Orleans, La"Up Against the Wall, Motherf--ker" had its lyrical origination with the MC5 (Motor City 5 -- from, not oddly, Detroit). The origin of the original phrase is somewhat more obscure, old and, no doubt, shrouded in the mists of time.
• Husunzi from Neijiang, China'Most of the lyrics for... "We Can Be Together"... were used virtually word for word on a leaflet written by [UAW/MF member] John Sundstrom, and published as "The Outlaw Page" in the East Village Other.' Not sure if this means Paul Kantner borrowed the words from UAW/MF or vice versa. Anyone know anything else about this coincidence?
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Against_the_Wall_Motherf--kers
• Julian from Minneapolis, MnUh, Fyodor -- it was the other side's fault. Or weren't you actually there?
• Jay from Hope, AbThis song was the cry for change that was only ever partially heard. It was a plea for humanity to return before everything collapsed, and while it went only partially heeded everyone got a taste of things to come.
  
  I wish their luxury cars would have been stolen, too, but haven't you read the essay "Death of the Author" by Barthes? The author is irrelevant, get over it. All that matters is the words. You'll find hypocrisy in everyone - just judge the words themselves and stop trying to feel superior simply because the author reaches out to heaven and fails to grasp it. Are you truly so saddened by your own failures to reach your dreams you can only spit vritually at others who have equally failed but at least tried?
  
  How sad. Oh well.
• Doug from Oakland, CaTrish,the Movement peaked in May,1970.After that,it was all downhill.
  We Can Be Together came out in the first part of 1970 when it appeared that the entire country was on the brink of chaos.
  One wonders what would have happened if someone tried to steal one of the Airplane's luxury cars and told Grace and Marty,"Hey,all your private property is a target for your enemy"
• Steve from Birmingham, AlEskimo Blue Day
• Fred from Laurel, MdThe remark about the Baxter's album is interesting, because they at least got the s-word into the soundtrack of an album-I remember hearing it on the recording. I don't remember the song or album title, but the lyric was, "...the great American dream doesn't mean s--- to a tree." Tony, was that what you were referring to, and are you saying they didn't get the word into the printed lyrics; or that in a different battle, over the song I excerpted from above, they couldn't get the word into the song at all?
• Fyodor from Denver, CoThis very self-conscious hippy movement manifesto does a good, if inadvertent, job of laying bare the movement's contradictions and confusion as it advocates unethical behavior for some supposedly higher morality, destruction for the sake of peace and a divisive stance for the sake of togetherness. Oh, I know it's supposedly all the other side's fault. It always is, isn't it?
• Trish from Old Forge, Pai'm pretty sure that up against the wall mother****ers was not originated by the airplane. this is what protesters and SDS members heard quite a bit from national guardsmen and pigs all over america in the mid to late 60's. this song did not come out until 1970, well after most of the underground movement's main protests and rallies had ended

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