Cuba

The series consisted of 5 songs (sorta) and we only did it maybe four or five times at different concerts. The recording that will be posted will be from the WSU concert in 1978. Nothing special on the recording equipment - just a cheap cassette deck with a feed off the PA panel to only be used for our own evaluation and never intended to be released to the public. Its raw - but it's all that remains.
Cuba '62
America
Telegram
12th Street Bus
Growing Up In America
America (reprise)

"Life was hard and things got worse, there were only three dollars in my mama's purse..."
Ralph's dad had been a moderately successful CPA in Cuba prior to the Castro regime takeover. When they were finally allowed to escape he had to leave all his credentials in Cuba, so when they arrived in Miami they had to live with relatives and do manual labor jobs. In the song "Growing Up In America", Ralph speaks of just being a kid and wanting things like most kids. "Buy me the moon, mama and daddy chase the ghosts away" is a telling look into the psyche of a traumatized child who laid awake at nights with tanks and guns just outside their windows in Cuba, and then going to "America" and wanting all that "Disney World" that lay before him. Little did he realize how brutal the cold Kansas winters were for his parents doing manual labor and trying to make ends meet. Ralph also interjects his understanding of the hypocrisy of "the good men who worshipped the Lord", who also burnt crosses on people's yards. It was quite observant of a child to see these things and write about them years later.
These songs were very emotional for Ralph to play and often I'd look over at him and see him struggling to get through them and me being the sentimental halfwit of the pair, couldn't help joining him in tears by the end of it all. We were as close as the brother neither of us ever had when we were doing these songs. (we fought like brothers too) But we got through them and we will yet.