Name: Mumia Abu Jamal
Duration: 3 min 48 s
Channel: Fred Stanton
Description: Free MP3 download. The case of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Mumia Abu Jamal

Fred Stanton

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Free download

The case of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Fred Stanton

Political/personal songs since the 1960s -- killer ballads, working-class anthems, political satire. Fred's twelve-string guitar can be anything from a blues ba

Fred Stanton’s songs (along with his lumberjack voice and jumbo 12-string guitar) embody the political folk-singing tradition. Fred has been an industrial worker (a welder of oilfield equipment; an electronic assembler; and a railroad electrician, hostler and brakeperson) as well as a political organizer and union activist. This life is at the heart of his songsmoving, personal ballads, rollicking satires, and working-class anthems. Fred has been singing in concerts, union rallies and political protests since the 1960s. His union songs celebrate the struggles of strikers at Peabody Coal, poultry processing workers in North Carolina, and strawberry pickers in California. And his "Singing Cars," a Bronx salute to car alarms, has been featured on NPR’s "Car Talk" show. Newest songs include “Five-Dollar Coal,” which is the story of miners in Utah fighting for a union.

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

#12,829 today Peak #97

#2,863 in subgenre Peak #22

Author

Fred Stanton

Rights

Uploaded

October 29, 2006

Track Files

MP3

MP3 3.5 MB • 128 kbps • 3:48

Story behind the song

I met Mumia when he was a young leader of the Black Panther Party. When I heard he had been charged with killing a Philadelphia policeman, I checked into the facts of the case, and wrote this song.

Lyrics

Mumia Abu-Jamal

It started in the darkness of a downtown Philly street.	
A cop was workin’ over, a kid was bein’ beat.	
A cabby drivin’ by slammed on his brakes	
And walked into a nightmare, and almost to his grave.	

Chorus:	
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mumia Abu-Jamal,
Live from death row, he’s someone you should know,
Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mumia saw his brother was beaten on the ground.
He tried to stop the policeman and Mumia was shot down.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital ward,
They told him someone shot that cop, killed him with a .44. 

	Mumia was a Panther when he was a kid,	
	Then he fought police brutality as a radio journalist.	
	Now he’s up for murder, it’s a miracle, they say,	
	He put a .44 bullet through the barrel of a .38. Chorus

The system is not equal, the system is not fair,
It’s always a little fairer if you’re a millionaire.
OJ had big lawyers to save him from disgrace.
Mumia had no money, and so he lost his case. 

	Old Judge Sabo did a little dance,
	As he handed down the sentence he almost wet his pants
	“Let’s kill all these Mumias and take a bite out of crime.
	The streets will be much safer, the trains will run on time.” Chorus

They killed Sacco and Vanzetti, and murdered the Rosenbergs.
Now they have Mumia, and it’s equally absurd.
We can win a new trial, and when he is released,
We’ll lift him on our shoulders and carry him down the street. Chorus

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