Jarama Valley Chords

Lyrics & chords

[Verse 1]
[D]I was in the U .S. Army in 1944
waiting to go overseas and
I had a weekend pass
and went up to New York
and found that Moses Ashe,
who later on ran Folkways records
was willing to record these songs
of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
And on Sunday we recorded six songs,
[A]
some in English,
some in our fractured Span[D]ish.
I didn't really know how to speak
or sing the language,
but I guess [G]a lot of
the brigade members
didn't know very well [A]either.[D]
There's a valley in Spain called Jarama
It's a place that we all know so [A]well
Where we [D]all learned
the true cost of [G]freedom,
And so [A]many of our brave comrades [D]fell.
We are proud of the Lincoln Battalion,
And the fight for Madrid that they [A]made.
There we [D]fought like the sons of the [G]people,
as a [A]part of the 15th Bri[D]gade.
When I went back to Spain in 1971,
I was not allowed to sing these songs
by the [A]Franco government.
However, [D]in 1978, Franco was dead
and I came back and sang
for huge audi[G]ences,
and of course I sang all these songs.
[Bb]Now [A]reme[D]mber
the valley of Rama
And the ones who would set
that valley [A]free
When the [D]hearts of your
people were [G]divided,
You will [A]never find friends such as [D]we.
From this valley you know we are going,
Do not hasten to bid us [A]adieu.
Although [D]we lost the battle of Hurama,
[G]
we'll [A]set that valley free
before we're [D]through.
I said, how come you sing these songs
in the same versions that I sing?
And they said, oh,
we learned them off your record.
We [A]made tapes of them
and brought them across the border
and played them for each [D]other.
Of course, if we played them very loud,
[G]we might have gotten arrested.
So [Bb]that [A]little record
kept alive in [D]Spain,
some of these songs.
All the world is like the valley [A]Hara[D]ma,
so green and so bright and so [A]fair.
Now we're [D]far from that
valley of sor[G]row,
but for [D]the [A]memories we carry from [D]there.
Now we're far from that valley, Harama,
[G]But for the mem[A]ories we
carry from [D]there.[G][A][D]
That little record kept alive in Spain

[Outro 1]
some of these songs.