Song for Day 34 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Santo Domingo" by Phil Ochs

Day 34 - "Santo Domingo"  by Phil Ochs

Songwriter Phil Ochs.

     "Santo Domingo", one of Phil's more melodic pieces, focused on the aggressive American stance since the 1950s, an outgrowth of the rise of the U.S. as the world's primary player in the world's largest industry:  arms.  The contrast between the military and the peaceful people, fauna and environment is stark.

     If the weapon producers can keep fear roiling abroad they can sit back at home and rake in the money, like the retired arms merchant in "At Business End":

I envy you your quiet sleep
but I have gone where promise lies
in shadowed doorway, castle keep,
the shallow drains of orphans' eyes.

I've gone to where the prophet lost
disciples to the fear we've sold
and then, at business end, I've washed
the blood away with beer and gold.

Like you those days and nights are past;
these digits say I must retire
to memoirs, pensions, myths that last,
still drawing comfort from the fire.

     Should peace break out, though, these countries become like the buzzards tired of their death watch.

     Pacifism has all but disappeared from the national stage, where it matters, as both parties are led by hawkish nominees.

    "I would leave the country," quipped one pundit after Trump's victory, "but I worry about being a victim of its foreign policy!"

     After meeting Chilean folksinger Victor Jara (who would be killed along with President Salvador Allende and thousands of others 2 years later) in August, 1971, Phil's trip to South America became harrowing, as we read on Wikipedia:

In October, Ochs left Chile to visit Argentina. Later that month, after singing at a political rally in Uruguay, he and his American traveling companion David Ifshin were arrested and detained overnight. When the two returned to Argentina, they were arrested as they got off the airplane. After a brief stay in an Argentinian prison, Ochs and Ifshin were sent to Bolivia via a commercial airliner where authorities were to detain them. Ifshin had previously been warned by Argentinian leftist friends that when the authorities sent dissidents to Bolivia, they would disappear forever. When the airliner arrived in Bolivia, the American captain of the Braniff International Airways aircraft allowed Ochs and Ifshin to stay on the aircraft, and barred Bolivian authorities from entering. The aircraft then flew to Peru where the two disembarked and they were not detained. Fearful that Peruvian authorities might arrest him, Ochs returned to the United States a few days later.

      In the last few years of his life Phil Ochs became affected by bipolarism, delusions (i.e. he thought someone named John Butler Train had taken over his body and will, intending to destroy him), drugs, depression, alcohol, and homelessness before he committed suicide at his sister's home in April of 1976.  Even at his worst, though, Ochs was a picture of mental health compared to Orange Julius Caesar.

Lyrics:

And the crabs are crazy, they scuttle back and forth
The sand is burning
And the fish take flight and scatter from the sight
Their courses turning

As the seagulls rest on the cold cannon nest
The sea is churning
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

The fishermen sweat, they're pausing at their nets
The day's a-burning
As the warships sway and thunder in the bay
Loud the morning

But the boy on the shore is throwing pebbles no more
He runs a-warning
That the marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

The streets are still, there's silence in the hills
The town is sleeping
And the farmers yawn in the gray silver dawn
The fields they're keeping

As the first troops land and step into the sand
The flags are weaving
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

The unsmiling sun is shining down upon
The singing soldiers
In the cloud dust whirl they whistle at the girls
They're getting bolder

The old women sigh, think of memories gone by
They shrug their shoulders
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

Ready for the tricks, their bayonets are fixed
Now they are rolling
And the tanks make tracks past the trembling shacks
Where fear is unfolding

All the young wives afraid, turn their backs on the parade
With babes they're holding
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

A bullet cracks the sound, the army hit the ground
The sniper is callin'
So they open their guns, a thousand to one
No sense in stalling

He clutches at his head and totters on the edge
Look how he's falling
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

In the red plaza square, the crowds come to stare
The heat is leaning
And the eyes of the dead are turning every head
To the widows screaming

But the soldiers make a bid, giving candy to the kids
Their teeth are gleaming
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

Up and down the coed, the generals drink a toast
The wheel is spinning
And the cowards and the whores are peeking
Through the doors to see who's winning

But the traitors will pretend that it's getting near the end
When it's beginning
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo

And the crabs are crazy, they scuttle back and forth
The sand is burning
And the fish take flight and scatter from the sight
Their courses turning

As the seagulls rest on the cold cannon nest
The sea is churning
The marines have landed on the shores
Of Santo Domingo