FAMILY OF MAN

FAMILY OF MAN - a folk-style world anthem

I wrote this folk-style “world anthem” in 1963 to as an add-on to the log of more satirical songs I wrote to sing at “folk venues” – these being the only venues available for casual live performance - not that many original songs were sung at these. “Folk” dominated, and my own genre of “original” songs sounded somewhat different because they were motivated by my experience of French pop music of the time where “chansonniers” (singer-song writers) abounded. Prominent among these was Georges Brassens. When the English-speaking world eventually produced its own singer-writers the model was set by US artists such as Bob Dylan.??Despite my being the odd one out in the “folk” world I did get a bit noticed and was booked to sing “family of Man” as a guest on the Bob Sanders TV show on which entrepreneur Lee Gordon also guested. He liked my song and, on air, promised to book me and my support group to open for US comedian Lenny Bruce who was due to appear in Sydney. That‘s another story! Check the sad saga of Lenny’s Bruce’s 1963 visit to Sydney at my Revolve article –

Below are the lyrics. At the time of writing the United Nations was using the term “Family of Man” to describe humans as being united as one family, and the term “man” was widely used as a collective noun to describe the human species, as was the personal pronoun “his”. Though currently Cancel Culture would condemn such used of the term “Man”, the fact is that this kind of gender insult (along with “he, him” as collectives) exists mainly in the English-speaking world. The French happily use the impersonal pronoun “on” (“one”) to refer collectively to individuals of all sexes and thus avoid transgression. Why don’t the English do the same? Probably due to inverse snobbery – because the British Royal Family constantly use it – “One’s not entirely sure about that” – probably to sound impartial. And the English don’t want sound as if they are presuming to imitating Royalty. Such non-usage has been exported to all English–speaking cultures on Planet Earth. Quite how Cancel Culture is going to cope with the use of “gender” terminology in languages where nouns acquire gender as a grammatical device (unrelated to sexual differentiation) remains to be seen. See below: f = female??m = male??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????The frog – La grenouille (f)??The rabbit – Le lapin (m)

Here are the lyrics.

FAMILY OF MAN??- or, if you prefer HUMAN FAMILY – both scan for singing.

“If every human being would once and for all?/ Reject beliefs and laws That separate man from man /?And make people slaughter each other for some bogus cause / / We could have a world where wealth was shared / Where the children that we clothe and feed / Would grow up accepted, each fulfilled?/ According to his own need???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Each according to his own need.?(Each according to one’s own need)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

And if every human being would once and for all /Accept this world as one place?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????And the people who live on this world /As belonging to but one race?/ We could share our hopes and build a society /Where men and women do what they can???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????To make this world a fitting place / For the Family of Man,????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? For the Family of Man.”??- or if you prefer : “For the Human Family”.????

This recording has survived transfers from tape, to acetate disc, to cassette and finally salvaged with the help of Soundloud and a bit of Dolby – see below for link to take you there.