Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:17 PM

Oh, yes, ThomasO - very sure. Eric even got the Unesco Peace Medal on the strength of this and other anti-war songs (Gift of years, As if he knows, No Man's Land etc).
Don't trust the Irish music publishers, they are notorious copyright thieves. The Furey Brothers renamed "No Man's Land" to "Green fields of France" and had a hit with it. Did they attribute the song to its author? Did they heck - only years later after Eric raised merry hell with the record company.
So, to recap, S(H)oodlums Irish Ballads is wrong on two counts: The song is not "trad", and it is not Irish - Scottish or Australian, if you like, given Eric's spiritual and physical homes; but definitely not Irish.
PS: Another example of the Irish music publishers' antics: Enya's 80's hit "Sail away". I bet you thought Enya wrote it! Try closer to London - Rod Shearman, a guy that died poor in 2001, having failed to defeat them in court despite all the evidence being on his side; he couldn't afford the big time lawyers...

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: swampy-the-spark
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 04:33 PM

I have just spent the last half hour reading this thread , with tears in my eyes for some of it.
I aggree with all the poster's
Tom Paxman's Jimmy Newman and Bogels walzing matilda, but can I submit Silos also by eric bogel, about the guys in the missile silos having doubts about there role.

Also can any one recall a song about a English soilger in Ireland throwing him self on the top of a bomb ?
I recall one line as:

the soldger stoped he could not move , his gun he could not use, he knew there were seconds not minuets on the fuse........"

I would love the full lyrics if any one out there in the bigest folk club in the world can help.

Fellow folkies keep your pecker up the wolrld may mock us but we will have the last laugh ??

Clive Davies
birmingham UK
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: mg
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 12:42 AM

Was that the one that Harvey Andrews wrote? It is in some threads here if I recall....mg

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 10:48 AM

I'm afraid I cannot tolerate "The band played Waltzing Matilda".

Perhaps because it at least implies there was conscription in Australia in WWI. There wasn't.

Perhaps because it claims Suvla as an Australian landing. It wasn't.

Perhaps because it proclaims Suvla an opposed landing. It wasn't.

If he'd written something about Anzac cove, Y Beach etc. fine, but distorting the truth weakens the case against the Great Obscenity.

Subject: when i go to heaven mama
From: GUEST,?
Date: 28 Dec 03 - 11:32 PM

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 10:47 AM

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 10:59 AM

I `ad that Jacques Chirac in my cab once. `e reckoned those French soldiers at Agincourt must `ave `ad a good anti war song as they marched down that valley but there were`nt nobody left to write it down. Any roads, I reckon us song writers is flogging a dead `orse. It don`t seem to make one `alfpenny worth of difference even after
10,000 years.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Hand-Pulled Boy
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 11:38 AM

'Poor Billy' by harriWatts band.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Lancashire Lad
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 06:01 PM

Seems that many have overlooked Mike Hardings's Bombers Moon album.

The title track that tells the tale of his father dying during WW2 is heartbreaking.
The album also contains a great "anti" WW1 song The Accrington Pals, not to mention a great version of ".....Waltzing Matilda" (Which is almost as good as June Tabor's version)

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Dylan
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 11:54 AM

the best ones for me are by the Levellers the one called

Another Mans Cause

look it up and it is truely a cracker

the next one is by Gaberlunzie called

Dont you bury me before the battle
such a god antiwar song about a bunch of soldiers on a hill top waiting for the morning to come and face there fate. i think its on the baslladeers web site i dont know how to do the bluey thingys but look on that and you'll find the lyrics
Dylan

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,JeanValjean
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 02:05 AM

Can someone help me? I'm Looking for a song that I heard as a kid. I thought it was sung by Rodger Whitekar, but maybe I'm wrong?
The only part I can remember is "Will the last word ever spoken be why?" Can anyone help me with this? I would appreciate it.
Thanks very much,
JVJ

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 02:13 AM

its called "Why?"
sorry I dont have the lyrics, have you tried his website?
I started a thread a while ago "Roger Whittaker, whats he up to now?"
I'll refresh it for you.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,JeanValjean
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 04:08 AM

I tried his site, but couldn't find it, but I went to a diffrent site, "Come together Now" and they say it's a Rodger Whitekar song, so at least I know now it was him! But at any rate, I think his song "Come Young Citizens Of The World" should be considered a candidate for ONE OF the greatest ant-war songs, because it may not have the words death or war, or blood in it, but it is pro peace. I think some of the best Anti-war songs, arn't always those which explain the evils of war, but the comforts of peace, and the rewards of the fellowship of mankind. i.e. B.M's "From A Distance"

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: plum
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 07:08 PM

scarecrows by john tams

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Athena
Date: 29 Mar 04 - 05:31 PM

I have to say that i found this site because i was looking for lyrics for "business goes on as usual". So i would have to say that that is a powerful song.
However, i would have to agree that "Last night I had the Strangest Dream" is also a most powerful song. I even have a patch of that song on my back pack. There are more songs coming out too that are very powerful. I don't usually go for the newer bands, but i would like to bring to you attention: Antiflag, on thier CD mobilize. I don't remeber what song it was, but they worked in a very powerful Martin Luther King Quote. It was very moving, a kind of new and old together. I know that Antiflag is very loud, but i just wanted to make the point that some good things are coming up. So keep your ears open.
Athena McCutcheon
"Hey, mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me."

Subject: Lyr Add: LOGAN BRAES (Robert Burns)
From: Bearheart
Date: 15 May 04 - 11:14 AM

I've read this thread pretty thoroughly and don't think anyone has mentioned these three-- perhaps not the greatest-- many of those have already been mentioned.

This by Robert Burns:

LOGAN BRAES
Robert Burns, 1793

O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide
That day I was my Willie's bride,
And years sin syne hae o'er us run
Like Logan to the simmer sun.
But now thy flowery banks appear
Like drumlie winter, dark and drear,
While my dear lad maun face his faes
From far frae me and Logan braes.

Again the merry month of May
Has made our hills and vallies gay;
The birds rejoice in leafy bowers,
The bees hum round the breathing flowers;
Blythe Morning lifts his rosy eye,
And Evening's tears are tears o' joy:
My soul delightless a' surveys,
While Willie's far frae Logan braes.

Within yon milk-white hawthorn bush,
Amang her nestlings sits the thrush:
Her faithfu' mate will share her toil,
Or wi' his song her cares beguile.
But I wi' my sweet nurslings here,
Nae mate to help, nae mate to cheer,
Pass widow'd nights and joyless days,
While Willie's far frae Logan braes.

O, wae upon you, Men o' State,
That brethren rouse in deadly hate!
As ye make monie a fond heart mourn,
Sae may it on your heads return!
Ye mindna' mid your cruel joys
The widow's tears, the orphan's cries;
But soon may peace bring happy days,
And Willie hame to Logan braes.

Originally called Logan Braes and slated for publication in Scottish Airs.However, it was deemed too inflammatory for its anti-war message and was not published until 1800 in "Works".

I may have found this in the DT or on a Burns web site. Don't remember.

And this, which I learned from the second Silly Sisters album-- lyrics (I think) from Maddy Prior's site?:

BLOOD AND GOLD / MOHACS

On rides a captain and 300 soldier lads
Out of the morning mist and thro' the silent snow
Whistling gaily rides the captain at their head
Behind him soldier boys sadly weeping go
O lads of mine weep no more
You are gone to kill and die

For when you took my gold and swore to follow me
You sold away your lives and your liberty
No more you'll till the soil, no more you'll work the land
No more to the dance you'll go and take girls by the hand
O mother weep for your son
He is gone to kill and die

You'll weep, you'll die by the keen edge of the sword
You'll all go in the fire there'll be no hiding place
O mother hear the drumbeat in the village square
O mother that drums for me to go for a soldier there
Mothers sisters wives, weep for us
Marked as Cain we lie alone

MY SON JOHN

My son John was tall and slim
He had a leg for every limb
But now he's got no legs at all
For he run a race with a cannonball
With me roo rum rar, faddle diddle dar
Whack faddlle liddle with me roo rum rar.

Oh were you deaf, were you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind
Or was it sailing on the sea
Lost your two fine legs right down to the knee
With me roo rum rar etc.

Oh I was not deaf, I was not blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
Nor was it sailing on the sea,
Lost my two fine legs right down to the knee
With me roo rum rar, etc.

For I was tall, I was slim
And I had a leg for every limb,
But now I've got no legs at all,
They were both shot away by a cannonball.
With me roo rum rar, etc.

I think many of the traditional songs were composed by those left behind. I think it was perhaps more politically dangerous to speak to the bigger issues back then than now-- go back several hundred years and you see a very different social picture. If we aren't careful to protect those freedoms we may turn back the clock...

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 15 May 04 - 01:46 PM

The older I get, the more Buffy St.Marie's "The Universal Soldier" makes a lot of sense. In anti-war songs, more often than not, it's the generals and the leaders who are depicted as the real guilty parties, and the poor foot soldier is seen as "only a pawn in the game", however...

Subject: ADD: Ballad of Penny Evans (Steve Goodman)^^^
From: GUEST,Augie
Date: 15 May 04 - 03:01 PM

Steve Goodman wrote this the last time we got into a stupid ass war.

The Ballad Of Penny Evans
(Steve Goodman)

Oh my name is Penny Evans and I just turned twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just began.
And I remember I was seventeen on the day I met young Bill
At his grandma's grand piano, we'd play good old 'Heart and Soul'
Well, I only knew the left hand part and he the right so well
He's the only boy I ever slept with and the only one I will.

It's first we had a baby girl and we had two good years
It was next the 1A notice came and we parted without tears
It was nine months from our last good night our second babe appears
And it's ten months and a telegram confirming all our fears.

And now every month I get a check from some Army bureaucrat
And it's every month I tear it up, and I mail the damn thing back.
Do you think that makes it all right, do you think I'd fall for that?
And you can keep your bloody money,sure won't bring my Billy back.

I never cared for politics,speeches I don't understand,
And likewise never took no charity from any living man.
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone in that unhappy land
And fifty thousand 'Heart and Soul's' being played with just one hand.

And my name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun. ^^^

I heard him sing this in 1975 and as he later wrote regarding the "Old Smoothies",there was "not a dry eye in the crowd".

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 04 - 04:16 PM

Not the greatest anti-war song ever, but I like this parody version of a Stevie Nicks' song done by the Vichy Chicks.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Pogo
Date: 16 May 04 - 02:00 PM

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye got mentioned a few posts back. There's a powerful version by a group called Steve Carroll and the Bograts...they bring out such a tone of anger and sorrow in that song.

Incidentally which song came first " Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye " or " When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again "? I've always wondered about that

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Pogo
Date: 16 May 04 - 02:09 PM

Here's a Health To The Company by the Cheiftans is also a good one...dunno if it could be strictly called an anti-war song but it is rather sobering to listen to.

Chorus:

So here's a health to the company
And one to my lass
Let's drink and be merry
all out of one glass
Let's drink and be merry
all grief to refrain
For we may or might never
All meet here again

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: JennyO
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:46 AM

Aw, I LOVE that song, especially at the end of festivals. However, it could be relevant for any situation when you are not sure when you will see someone again. Unfortunately that real possibility is very much a part of wartime.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: emjay
Date: 20 May 04 - 01:12 AM

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye is quite a bit older, I believe. When Johnny Comes Marching Home dates to the American Civil War.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 May 04 - 01:16 AM

best anti war song is either No Mans Land, or Waltzing Matilda, [both in the dt],
if anyone disagrees, they are stupid.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 04 - 04:15 PM

You are aware that yours is the sort of provincialism which causes wars, surely, John?

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 10:03 PM

If I Were Free (to speak my mind) - Travis Edmonson - as sung by Peter, Paul and Mary - recently here on a thread ...

Agent Orange (they killed me in Vietnam - and I didn't even know) - Muriel Hogan - as sung by Kate Wolf (lyrics here on Mudcat too) ...

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 10:06 PM

Is it possible for the Mudcat Pixies to split this thread into Parts I and II ??!!

: some of us don't have fast inner-city 'puter connections ...

Thanks,

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 11:32 AM

To register ( especially in young children's minds ) the futility of it all, you can't beat the Grand old Duke of York.
I note some one mentions Martin Whyndam Read earlier - he also used to sing a song " William White " (I think that may be the title) about a teacher in N.S.W. who woudn't go to Vietnam , and , Allan Taylor's song which opens " Oh the morning lies heavy on my Father ......." apologies I'm not sure of the exact title of that either.
Problem with Eric Bogle's Waltzing Matilda - not withstanding the factual criticism of Guest 19 Dec 03 - 10:48 AM ,is that I've heard it sang too many times by shitty , over-rehearsed , self indulgent performers, but, to temper that remark, I must say I was stunned the very first time I heard it , and for many times after, however, nowadays its' singing, and I stress, - in the earlier described manner , usually presents me with the ideal opportunity to visit either the bar or the bog.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 01:03 PM

The duo Small Potatoes has a great one in "One Thousand Cranes, One Thousand Candles". And there is the old ballad "Just Before The Battle, Mother".

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Just passin through
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 05:12 PM

Can't believe no one's mentioned Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On"!

Also, the Clash's extraordinary "London Calling" is something of an anti-war song.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,just passin through
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 05:22 PM

i do not know the name of the group, or many of the words, but the ending, after the battle:
    the valley people, after killing the mountain people, turned over the 'stone' to get the treasure:

             "peace on earth was all it said"

   i leave the details to someone else.


This is "One Tin Soldier," by Coven. It is played over the opening credits sequence of the film Billy Jack. Great song.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 04:19 PM

Somebody mentioned:
The Village of Brambleshire Wood

which is off the Irish Rovers album TALES TO WARM YOUR MIND, which is one of the few Rovers things not to be out on CD these days. Thrice I've bid on a piece of mint Vinyl of this record on EBAY and thrice, the sellers ahve failed to deliver the goods. This was THE album of Irish-American Folkie childhood and drat..I cannot get a decent copy to run myself a CD off of.

Does anybody have this on Vinyl on good condition and would be willing to sell it to me? Or better yet, is there some import CD of any of the unavailable songs on this album? About half the songs can be found on CD, but the ones that cannot are the ones we love. Brambleshire Wood is one of those Anti-War songs I have always wanted since it appears to be referring to WWI.

help! I'll keep trying Ebay, but I have feeling no real copy exists. I do have a copy but it's the one we scratyched up as kids and snaps, crackles and pops more than a bowl of rice crispies.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: goodbar
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 09:59 PM

some bogle and dylan songs. 'i ain't marching anymore' by phil ochs. they're not folk, but crass does some of my favorites, particularly the christ the album version of 'major general despair'.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 15 Mar 05 - 09:53 AM

Christians at War (in DigiTrad)

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: A potato without pepper is like a kiss without a moustache. :||

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,cromdubh
Date: 15 Mar 05 - 03:07 PM

A silent Night, Christmas in the trenches, By Cormac MacConnell. Anyone hear of it?

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Ron Wilson
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 08:43 AM

"Once Was the Time of Man" which I heard by the Limeliters.

And you might check out
:http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/the_battle_of_blenheim.html

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 08:50 AM

"The Ballad of the Green Berets," for who can listen to it and not see the whole business for the ludicrous enterprise that it generally is...?

~D

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 10:36 AM

I'll second (or third, or fourth) Christmas in the Trenches and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. There are a lot of other excellent mentions. I didn't read the whole (long) thread. But I wonder if this one has been mentioned:
Cranes Over Hiroshima by Fred Small

http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/cranesov.htm

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 10:40 AM

Silly me. I just browsed the forum and discovered that I had already posted the same thing earlier. D'oh!

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 11:14 AM

When a thread gets to be over 200 posts, the best I can usually do is skim - but I'm sure my favorite hasn't been listed, since it isn't well known (yet).

During the height of the Bosnian War, Lois Lyman (who wrote "Wiscasset Schooners" and "Going On") read a newspaper article about a particularly gruesome slaughter of six children. The song she wrote, "Sarajevo" is, hands down, the best anti-war song I've ever heard - every bit as powerful and simple as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" or "Come Away Melinda." The line that brings me to tears is repeated at the end of each verse - "What has war to do with children?"

Without Lois's permission, I'm hesitant to post the full lyrics - but I give you the first three verses:

Children watch the snow drifting down, drifting down -
Children watch the snow drifting down, drifting down -
Footprints in the snow of a sleepy town
What has war to do with children?

Footprints in the snow where the children played -
Footprints in the snow where the children played -
Teardrops in the snow where six were laid.
What has war to do with children?

Teardrops in the snow where the mothers cried -
Teardrops on the snow where the mothers cried -
Laying down the flowers where their children died
What has war to do with children?

It gets more powerful from there.

Other than the title and the presence of snow in the lyrics, the song could be about almost any war ever fought. I think of both Iraq and Afghanistan - and Darfur, and Uganda, and all the others.

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 11:20 AM

The Sun Is Burning In The Sky is the one that sums it all up for me.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Sailorboy
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 11:26 AM

'Roland the headless Thompson Gunner' By the late Warren Zevon

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 12:17 PM

Dylan:
Blowin' In The Wind

Lehrer:
So Long Mom, I'm Off To Drop The Bomb
We Will All Go Together When We Go

The following appears on a bicentennial recording from my New England Town s'posedly from the American Revolutionary Era, sounds more Irish than anything else:

When I was young I used to be
As fine a lad as ever you'd see
The Prince O' Wales he says to me
"Come join the British Army!"
Toora loora loora loo
They're lookin' for monkeys up in the zoo
And if I had a face like you
I'd join the British Army!

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 12:13 AM

There's a Wall in Washington – Iris Dement
"But her heart it breaks 'cause all that is left,
Is this wall in Washington."

Dover, Delaware – The Duhks
"Sing a love song for the first to fall,
And keep singing 'til they fight no more"

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Ard Mhaca
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 04:16 AM

In all the tributes to Tommy Makem on Youtube, listen to him singing "Johnny I hardly knew ya", and Tommy`s rendition would sway me in nominating this song as a real contender for the greatest anti-war song.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 04:37 AM

The Grave

The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillside in bright summer colours
And the brown earth bleached white at the edge of his gravestone
And he's gone.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Frogette
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 09:57 AM

See this thread has been restarted so I'm going to nominate Les Sullivan's

Battle of Jutland
Roses of No Mans Land
Menim Gate
Sullivan's Farewell
Reaper Smiled
Forever in Peace
Little Julie Loved Flowers
Harvest of Iron

have a look at his myspace. May not be the best EVER but certainly very good.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:17 PM

I cast my vote for the late Tommy Makem's rendition of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya'" as well as "Mrs. McGrath". Of course Eric Bogle's epic. To me the best songs are the least breast-beating and the most folk-concise. I'll put in for Derroll Adam's "Portland Town" since I knew Derroll about the time he wrote it and we had long talks about the futility of war.
Tommy Sand's "There Were Roses" and "The Music of Healing" gets my vote too.

Any good anti-war song is the greatest song ever in my book.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Liz Carter
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:50 PM

There's been some incredible anti-war songs written, including Christmas in the Trenches and Masters of War. For some new, great anti-war songs regarding the current madness in Iraq, check out Busy Makin' Money, War Machine, and Ain't No Water at
http://cdbaby.com/cd/burlsheldon

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: bobad
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:55 PM

John Brown
by Bob Dylan

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore.
His mama sure was proud of him!
He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all.
His mama's face broke out all in a grin.

"Oh son, you look so fine, I'm glad you're a son of mine,
You make me proud to know you hold a gun.
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get,
And we'll put them on the wall when you come home."

As that old train pulled out, John's ma began to shout,
Tellin' ev'ryone in the neighborhood:
"That's my son that's about to go, he's a soldier now, you know."
She made well sure her neighbors understood.

She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile
As she showed them to the people from next door.
And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun,
And these things you called a good old-fashioned war.

Oh! Good old-fashioned war!

Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come.
They ceased to come for about ten months or more.
Then a letter finally came saying, "Go down and meet the train.
Your son's a-coming home from the war."

She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around
But she could not see her soldier son in sight.
But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last,
When she did she could hardly believe her eyes.

Oh his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off
And he wore a metal brace around his waist.
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know,
While she couldn't even recognize his face!

Oh! Lord! Not even recognize his face.

"Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done.
How is it you come to be this way?"
He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And the mother had to turn her face away.

"Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home . . . acting proud.
You wasn't there standing in my shoes."

"Oh, and I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here?
I'm a-tryin' to kill somebody or die tryin'.
But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close
And I saw that his face looked just like mine."

Oh! Lord! Just like mine!

"And I couldn't help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink,
That I was just a puppet in a play.
And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke,
And a cannon ball blew my eyes away."

As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock
At seein' the metal brace that helped him stand.
But as he turned to go, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hand.