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For many people, the first impression of this song is that it is a story
from World War II - a woman working with the underground infiltrating
a German officer's confidence. Len Chandler's comments indicate that he
was thinking in a wider context, both in time and place, of any colonial
or occupying force and internal resistance to it.
Chandler's notes from his Lovin' People album: "I saw three movies in one week: 'Gone Are the Days' with Godfrey Cambridge, 'Mata Hari' with Greta Garbo and 'Notorious' with Ingrid Bergman. They inspired this song. There's the thing like going to a country we've conquered and being able to choose from among the wives and mistresses, sweethearts, mothers and sisters in exchange for an orange or a pack of cigarettes. Then it seems strange to us that ten years later nobody loves us."Recorded by Len Chandler, Benji Aronoff (The Two Sides Of Benji Aronoff - 1965), Taj Mahal and probably some others. I learned this by ear and worked out the guitar instrumental the same way but I can't remember if it was from Chandler's or Aronoff's recording or from someone else. |