United Fruit

Demo recorded for Broadside, 1965:



And the fruit boats ride on the waves
And the crew will dream of return
Back to the Florida waters
For the work of unloading onto the trains

And the ships will dance by the shore
With fruit from Venezuela
Brazil and Costa Rica
But the fruit from the island of Cuba is carried no more

And on the decks it will lay
Picked by the hands of the peons
At the lowest possible wages
While the profits are made by the strangers from far away

Now some pick the fruit of the vine
While others will go to the mountains
And eat the fruit of the hillside
And learn the way of the rifle and wait for the time

Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
So they will be strong in the morning to go back again

And the companies keep a sharp eye
And pay their respects to the army
To watch for the hot-blooded leaders
And be prepared for the junta to crush them like flies

So heavy the price that they pay
As daily the fruit it is stolen
Over the blue Caribbean
But the lengthening shadow of Cuba will hinder the way

And the fruit boats ride on the waves
And the crew will dream of return
Back to the Florida waters
For the work of unloading onto the trains


The Clash used lyrics from "United Fruit" in "Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" on the album Sandinista! (1980):



The towers of London, these crumbling rocks
Reality estates that the hero's got
And every hour's marked by the chime of a clock
Whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds?
You can piss in the lifts which have broken down
You can watch from the debris the last bedroom light
We're invisible here just past midnight

The wives hate their husbands and their husbands don't care
Their children daub slogans to prove they lived there
A giant pipe organ up in the air
You can't live in a home which should not have been built
By the bourgeoise clerks who bear no guilt
When the wind hits this building, this building it tilts
One day it will surely fall to the ground

Fear is just another commodity here
They sell us peeping holes to peek when we hear
A bang on the door resoundingly clear
Who would really want to move in here?
The children play far away, the corridors are bare
This room is a cage, it's like captivity
How can anyone exist in such misery?

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To go back in the morning"

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To be strong in the morning
To go back again"

It has been said

"To raise the buildings"

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To be strong in the morning"