The Ballad Of Harry Pollitt

Recordings

The Slightly Fabulous Limeliters, The Limeliters, 1961

Notes

Possibly performed at the Carlos Bookstall in San Carlos in July 1961. The song is sung a cappella by Robert Hunter. The tape includes only the last part of the song, the majority is missing. It is possible that the song does not belong with the other songs on the tape and is not from the same date and venue. The song occurs on circulating tapes and on set lists as Bolshevik In Hell.

The lyrics used by Hunter as as follows;

...(tape cuts in).
He tucked his nightie round his knees
And he drifted down to hell

He drifted down to hell
He drifted down to hell
He tucked his nightie round his knees
And he drifted down to hell

Now seven long years have passed
I hear he's doing swell
He's just been made first people
Commissar of Soviet hell

Commissar of Soviet hell
Commissar of Soviet hell
He's just been made first people
Commissar of Soviet hell

Now the moral of this story
Is easy for to tell
If you want to be a bullshitter
You'll have to go to hell

You'll have to go to hell
You'll have to go to hell
If you want to be a bullshitter
You'll have to go to hell.