'Support the Troops' songs???

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Barry Finn
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 09:06 AM

Andy, that was very moving.

CET mentioned Kipling, great IMHO.

Follow Me Home

Danny Deever


My Boy Jack

Tommy

Good luck Bobert

Barry

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 08:31 AM

The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily!
Over the Hills and Far Away.
The Minstrel Boy.
Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier. Not an anti-war song, it express the pain and longing of those left behind, waiting.
Kipling's Tommy, Mandalay, Ford o'Kabul River, My Boy Jack and several others. Peter Bellamy has set them to some great tunes

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 05:36 AM

Hanging on the old barbed wire, Join the British Army, Johnny I hardly knew you, Paddy`s lament, and you would have been asked for an encore if you sang, The rifles of the IRA, did i get you right, were you singing for the brave Afghans fighting for their homeland?.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Alan Day
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 04:03 AM

Even writing a fictitious song about WW1 I found it very emotional,writing about a Son or Family member in War must be extremely difficult,but rewarding Andy.
Al

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Sugwash
Date: 15 Nov 08 - 07:16 PM

I wrote this a while ago. Admittedly from the perspective of the father of a British Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan, but pertinent nontheless. There's a fairly ropey version of it on my Myspace site.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=7704815

THEY'RE BRINGING MY SON HOME TODAY
©J.A.Sugden March 2007

As I sit on his bed I remember his smile,
They're bringing my son home today,
In this photo he's beaming, surrounded by mates,
They're bringing my son home.
His birth was a hard one, the wife suffered and how;
We'd not have another, we both made that vow.
But the pain she felt then is nothing to what she feels now.
They're bringing my son home today.

There's an interview with his old headmaster,
They're bringing my son home today,
He's saying he was a popular student,
They're bringing my son home.
But he was in trouble from first to last;
Our hopes of university quickly passed.
When the police were involved his mum was aghast.
They're bringing my son home today.

After school he just drifted,
They're bringing my son home today,
From dole to dead-end job and back,
They're bringing my son home.
Then out of the blue he'll be a marine.
The wife was in hysterics and causing a scene.
I encouraged him, God help me, "Go serve the Queen".
They're bringing my son home today.

He loved it, all the training,
They're bringing my son home today,
The hard graft and camaraderie,
They're bringing my son home.
Then training was ended and come the day,
The look on his face when he got his green beret.
We were both so proud he'd found his own way.
They're bringing my son home today.

Then he's off on his first deployment,
They're bringing my son home today,
To a land far from this English shore,
They're bringing my son home.
He relished the action; it's what he'd joined for.
Part of an elite, the esprit de corps.
Then one evening, the knock on our door
They're bringing my son home today.

Downing Street expresses regrets.
They're bringing my son home today.
Politicians spouting platitudes.
They're bringing my son home.
His C.O., more honest, says "He was a good bloke.
Always stood by his mates; always ready with a joke."
The wife is in pieces, I think her heart's broke
They're bringing my son home today.

There're flowers outside the barracks gate
They're bringing my son home today
The Union flag flies at half-mast
They're bringing my son home
An old man pauses, then throws a salute
They'll say my son died serving his country; that I'll dispute
He died serving a policy dreamt up by a suit
They're bringing my son home today.

The bugle will play the Last Post,
They're bringing my son home today,
As they carry him slowly down the ramp.
They're bringing my son home.
I've watched that scene too often before,
But this time it's my son, a by-product of a lousy war.
Can somebody tell me just what he died for?
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home.

Andy Sugden

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Alan Day
Date: 15 Nov 08 - 06:40 PM

I am sorry I am late with this one,but posted it for your interest

TAKE ME BACK (by Alan Day) Sung to the lovely hymn tune "The Day Thou Givest Lord is Ended".

Chorus
Take me back to my Country
Where the field are so green.
Take me back to my love one
and the Son I've never seen
Take me away from this War
Where the air is so clean
Take me back to my England

I joined with my Brothers behind a church door
And within days we were fighting a War.
A stupid decision that I knew was wrong.
Killed both of my Brothers I'd grown with so long.
So now I am here all alone with my gun
The smoke and tears are hiding the Sun
My friends all around me i've known for a day
Their silent and dead in the mud now they lay.

As I lay here wounded with a pain in my side
Out in this field there is nowhere to hide
The bullets fly over the place where I lay
No one to talk to and nothing to say.
Through the fog comes a trooper with a hero's cry
running towards me to where I may die
The shooting is silent as they salute a brave man
Who carries me to the Red Cross Van.

Early this morning on the first High Tide
We set sail with hope and pride
The Cliffs of Dover are coming in site
and emotion swells up as I give up the fight
My Darling is waving from the quayside wall
My Son beside her looking proud and tall.
My one only desire is my boy on my knee
With a lovely fire and her looking at me.

Al

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,steve5872'live.co.uk
Date: 01 Nov 08 - 12:33 PM

if there was ever a song that summed up the life of a squaddie. it THE SOLDIER SONG, BY HARVEY ANDREWS.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,JimP
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 09:11 PM

Short, but how about "The Seamen's Hymn" by AL Lloyd?

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: oldhippie
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 05:33 PM

Thanks For The Support - Roy Zimmerman

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 03:59 PM

Fightin' side of me

When Im gone

the Saints are coming

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Beer
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 05:34 AM

Great for you. Now get ready. You'll be asked to come back next year.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Greg F.
Date: 05 Nov 07 - 08:32 AM

Glad you made it thru alive, Bobert.

Consider Ochs' "Is There Anybody Here" - or "Cops of the World".

Funny how so many of his "dated" 40-year-old songs are so absolutely contemporary without any changes, ain't it?

Well, not really "funny"- more depressing....

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 09:07 AM

Well, as I thought I had said (but perhaps not) I did My own "God's Will" which, just as I thought, went over everyone's head and they thought it was about how God is gonna get the Osamas of the world. The one guy who did get it was Vietnam vet who is very anti-war and he gave me a high five right after my performance as I was walkin' back to my seat in the auditorium...

The 2nd song was "Drummer Boy" and it came off almost perfectly... I was going to do it on my cigar-box geetar but there was something wrong with the bass string electic pickup and so I borrowed a geetar from one of the other performers, tuned it to open G (where the cigar box stays) and let the song rip... It sounded real good with a member of another band just playin' a march on the snare...

Got alot "good job's" afterward from all kinds of folks...

But I am glad it's over...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: The Walrus
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 05:38 AM

Bobert,

So which songs did you choose in the end?

W

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Stringsinger
Date: 03 Nov 07 - 06:51 PM

Bobert, there is a way. Sing songs that don't try to stick military noses in shit.
Allow for the fact that many of these guys are sincere people and deserve respect
for trying to do what they think is right.

Good peace songs will do this. Not confrontational stuff that makes for discomfort.
No sane person wants to go to war. Appeal to the sanity.

Pete's "Where Have All The Flowers", Tommy Sand's "The Music of Healing", you might even get away with "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" (but maybe not), "Two Brothers" (Irving Gordon song) "The Blue and the Gray" (a great song about healing after the Civil War, "Band Played Waltzing Mathilda" (Eric Bogle), or McCutcheon's "Christmas in the Trenches" (these shouldn't be offensive and you will probably be surprised at the support you get for them and convey the message that we all want peace in our time.

Frank

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Nov 07 - 11:15 AM

Well, Tom, Saddam woulda taken Bush out at 2:17 of the 1st round...

You, SRS... I finally got my pudder to download that B.J. song and figure, awwwwww, what the heck, might as well do it instead... LOL...

(Are you crazy, Bobert???)

Well, yeah but not stupid...

The song is a real toot, ahhhhh, make that "hoot"...

No, I'm ready to go... Two songs and outta there with whatever brownie points I get... Looks as if my harp player is going to try to make it... That's good 'cause he is a card carrying VFW Nam vet...

Plus I'm going to deicate the songs to a couple of folks... One is a high school class mate that got killed in Nam and the other is a the son of harp-man Blind Mississippi Morris whoes son is in Iraq...

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions!!!

B~

("Sidewalk Bob" tonight...)

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: goatfell
Date: 03 Nov 07 - 09:02 AM

I think that wars should be fought among the people that start's them.

Tom

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 03 Nov 07 - 08:13 AM

Link to "The same Wind Blows on Me" By Margot Cook

Posted with her permission and recorded on the CD
"Between the Tay & the Forth"
a CD of "New Songs C"elebrating Fife in Scotland

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 10:12 PM

Goober Peas, sung by both sides in the american civil war.
Lily Marlene

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Fliss
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 05:36 PM

Nice one Skipy. I live near the nice Mr Caddick. He frequents the same local as me. He runs a singers session at The Black Swan, Jackfield 1st Sunday of the month.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: skipy
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 03:42 PM

Bill Caddick's Writing Of Tipperary
Skipy

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 01:21 PM

And then there's Moratorium (Bring our Brothers Home) by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Captin Collier came home, he'd been fighting the war
And he thought that he'd maybe come home as a hero and more...

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: bankley
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 01:11 PM

poignant.....

there's also a lively one called "Johnny Comes Lately',,,, and also "Rich Man's War" both by Steve Earle...

my son was in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) for 3 years... glad that he's been out for awhile... he once told me, "I really like my buddies but have a problem with authority".. so i told him that he'd better find a different line of work..... which he eventually did... a few times

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Fliss
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 12:18 PM

As someone who is against war it is ironic that my eldest son in in the British Army - his choice not mine. Hes on a six month detachment abroad... not Afghanistan or Iraq thank goodness.

No amount of jingoistic songs & ditties are going to impress the serving soldier of today. They like their own modern music, not songs from past wars, and hymns. If they are anything like my lad they are very cynical and would just take the michael... and get on with the job in hand.

Yes the sentiments of posted songs are very strong... the Arlo Guthrie one is particularly apt. Forgotten by governments once they are dead or injured.

My choice of song for my son is:-


AN IRISH BLESSING,   

Ralph McTell

How my life is changing now
My young ones start to leave their home
I wish that their uncertain road
Was one that I could tread with them

As when I walked them home from school
Or safely caught them when they fell
Or chase the demons from their dreams
With jokes and stories that I could tell.

May the road rise with you
And the wind be at your back
Go raibh an ghaoth I goónai ar do chûl
Go n-éiri and bóthar leat.

And now it's me who has to learn
To let you make your way alone
To try not to direct each turn
Your triumphs and mistakes your own.

Your path will different be to mine
No tricks of my trade no use to you
To others and yourself be kind
Your suffering would hurt me too.

Chorus

I hear the calling of your heart
I see in your eyes that you know
To cherish is the easy part
The hardest task is letting go

So let me see you to the corner
Let me watch you down the street
May my love be your protector
And walk with you till next we meet.

May the road rise with you
And the wind be at your back
Go raibh an ghaoth I goónai ar do chûl
Go n-éiri and bóthar leat.


fliss

no1 son and Ralph share the same birthday - Dec 3rd. Happy birthday both of you.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: bankley
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 10:57 AM

How about "Political Science"
(Let's Drop the Big One) by Randy Newman....... good for a laugh...

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 02 Nov 07 - 04:14 AM

A couple of fine songs here, me thinks:
Come To The Bower - Allen Damron / Tim Henderson
and
Veteran's Day - Tom Russell

Give 'em an ear; they might work for you. Cheers

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Beer
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 09:47 PM

If this message shows up else where then I apologize because I just sent the following : "P/ming you right now" and it didn't show anywhere.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 09:15 PM

Well, Beer, no problem... Like I said, PM the addie and when I get 'round to recordin' it you'll see... It's a better song that it is a peom... I promise... It kicks harder than a mule... It's down and slam-ass dirty... You gotta remember that I do down-'n-dirty blues rock... I don't take no prisoners... You can check out a few samples of my style on CDBaby (Sidewalk Bob, "13 Shades of Blues") to get a feel of how I go at songs... Check out "Waymore's Dream" fir a good example of what style I'm gonna put on "God's Will"...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bert
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 09:06 PM

Over There.
The Laddies who fought and won.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Beer
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 09:05 PM

Just reading over my post Bobert and I don't want to be shitting on your parade. I think you have done a great job in composing your "Song". Just curious how the melody fits.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 09:04 PM

Well, Beer, I might just include it, in some form, on my next CD... I don't know... Maybe not??? But it will get recorded sometime this coming winter in some form and if you'd like your own personalized copy then PM me with the particulars an' I'll see to it that you get a copy....

BTW, it is very much a song...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Beer
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 08:57 PM

It's not a song to me but a poem, and it is very pleasing. How can I relate to it as a song if I can't hear the melody. All the very best and I'm sure it will go over well.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:09 PM

Well, it's set... I wrote an "innards evrese to go with the two verses that I posted earlier and the song is purdy tight now...

Oh, the middle verse goes:

Well, soldier do waht soldiers do
Won't hear them askin' why
They give their souls, heros all
While families back home cry
Yeah, old me stand and rattle sabers
Seems old men can't get thrie fill
Send young folk off to kill or die
And say it's just God's will
Oh yeah, just God's will...

I feel okay with the song... It doesn't attack any one leader personally... I might make it outtta the high school without some redneck tryin' to kill me...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: theleveller
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 05:24 AM

"a thinly veiled contempt for men and women in uniform"

No, but total and utter contempt for the people who started this war (Bush and Blair). I suggest that Steve Knightley's Crooked Man would be a good choice.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: CET
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 05:08 AM

Rita, thanks for bringing up something that's bothered me about a lot of the songs mentioned on this thread. A very great number of the songs could easily come across as showing either condescension or a thinly veiled contempt for men and women in uniform. There's some good ones, too, that just aren't the right choice for this kind of gig. I could think of some Kipling and Burns songs and some trad stuff, like Over the Hills and Far Away (the John Tams lyrics), but I don't think that's Bobert's usual cup of tea.

Edmund

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: The Walrus
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:54 AM

I note that no-one has mentioned "When This Lousey/Bloody War is Over"

W

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: TIA
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 12:06 AM

I would hope that anyone who hears "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (mentioned above, thanks) would realize that it is ALL about supporting the troops. Eric Bogle sings it here.

Go Bobert!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Ferrara
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 11:38 PM

You know, songs about lives ruined by war, or the bitter kind of protest songs may not be appropriate for a "support the Troops" event.

"Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" would be good, I think. How about soldiers' gripe songs? F'r instance
"I'll Tell You Where They Were",
"What Do You Do in the Infantry (You March, You March, You March)",
Ewan MacColl's "Browned Off,"
"Gee Ma I Want to Go Home ," or whatever.
Hard Crackers Come Again No More
Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
The Reuben James
Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
"Come Be A Soldier for Marlboro and Me" (Tune: same as Waltzing Matilda)
Oh It's a Lovely War

Don't know if you know any of these or if they appeal to you but anyway maybe they'll suggest something.
Rita F

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:43 PM

Arlo Guthrie wrote a powerful song back in 1989 called When a Soldier Makes It Home. There's a Youtube video of Arlo performing it here.

WHEN A SOLDIER MAKES IT HOME
words and music by Arlo Guthrie

Halfway around the world tonight
In a strange and foreign land
A soldier packs his memories
As he leaves Afghanistan
And back home they don't know too much
There's just no way to tell
I guess you had to be there
For to know that war was hell

Chorus:
And there won't be any victory parades
For those that's coming back
They'll fly them in at midnight
And unload the body sacks
And the living will be walking down
A long and lonely road
Because nobody seems to care these days
When a soldier makes it home

They'll say it wasn't easy
Just another job well done
As the government in Kabul falls
To the sounds of rebel guns
And the faces of the comrades
Being blown out of the sky
Leaves you bitter with the feeling
That they didn't have to die

Chorus

Halfway around the world tonight
In a strange and foreign land
A soldier unpacks memories
That he saved from Vietnam
Back home they didn't know too much
There was just no way to tell
I guess you had to be there
For to know that war was hell

And there wasn't any big parades
For those that made it back
They flew them in at midnight
And unloaded all the sacks
And the living were left walking down
A long and lonely road
Because nobody seemed to care back then
When a soldier made it home

The night is coming quickly
And the stars are on their way
As I stare into the evening
Looking for the words to say
That I saw the lonely soldier
Just a boy that's far from home
And I saw that I was just like him
While upon this earth I roam

And there may not be any big parades
If I ever make it back
As I come home under cover
Through a world that can't keep track
Of the heroes who have fallen
Let alone the ones who won't
Which is why nobody seems to care
When a soldier makes it home

©1989 Arloco Music, Inc.


It really is a phenomenal song.

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: The Walrus
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:22 PM

I note that one or two people have suggested hymns, may I add to the list:
"The Good Old Way" ("I Havee a Sweet Hope of Glory in My Soul") or, if the crowd seens right for it
"I Vow to Thee, My County" (but make sure you use BOTH verses)

There is another song, I don't know if it will be of any use, it depends on the audience.

http://janus001.blogspot.com/

The song is a UTube snippet embedded in a Regimental Association page*, posted on another site. (I just don't know how to extract it).

W

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: mg
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 07:48 PM

The important thing is not to support the troops so much as fail to abuse them. mg

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 06:14 PM

Well, Ged, that's good question...

But what it boils down to is that I was asked to do it and to not do it wouldn't be too neighborly... Heck, I play up at the ski lodge in the winter with cigarette smoke and drunks so I figured that if I can do that the least I could do was just "suck it up" and make the best of it... Plus, just about every musican in the danged county has agreed to participate so it's kinda a no-brainer...

But, hark... I was talkin' with one of the other musicans today who is a great lead guitarist and an even better drummer and asked him if he'd back me up with just a snare on "Drummer Boy" so I fell real comfy with that song...

"God's Will" is gonna take a little writin' tonight but I'll do it solo, or if my harmonica player can be there, just with him...

Man gotta do what a man gotta do...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:25 PM

"They were anti-war too." Thought never crossed my mind. Good point.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Peace
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 02:10 PM

Years ago I played at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. My set was ALL anti-war. I received a good ovation at the end. They were anti-war too.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 02:07 PM

Carrying Your Smile by Robb Johnson is a great song and exactly what you need!

Song on his new CD All That Way for This
Words and chords on his website http://www.robbjohnson.co.uk/news/alwft.html

Carrying your smile carefully in my heart
I carefully close the door and step into the dark
And though the journey home may take a little while
I will go the distance carrying your smile

Carrying your smile, it hardly hurts at all
When we say goodbye, when the silence falls
I don't count the days, I don't count the miles
I just go the distance carrying your smile

All across the world, this is what we do
We step into the dark and hope that we get through
All that keeps us going is the people that we love
But sometimes there are checkpoints where that won't be enough…
                                          
Carrying your smile like a lucky charm
I'm a lucky man to have held you in my arms
We line up at the checkpoint, we line up single file
I just want to go the distance carrying your smile.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 01:18 PM

There is a song written by Margo Cook " The same wind Blaws on me" which is very poignant an I starts d would stike a chord with all those who have friends seving in the middle east.
It starts "The wind that sweeps the desert sand"
Il see her tomorrow night and get her permission to post it if anyone wants the full words.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Gedpipes
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:25 AM

Bobert
What I can't understand about your original post is the fact that you 'are biting the bullet' If you fel uncomfortable about it why are you doing the gig?
Ged

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Jim Lad
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 11:00 PM

The Grave
I'm Asking You Seargant "Where's Mine?"
Blowin' in the Wind.

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 08:45 PM

Thanks, Beer... This song has always been a pauin in the butt for me... I wrote the above verses about 5 years ago and have never had any "innards" that I likes as much as what I have??? Oh well, dust the sucker off, throw in some "innards" about "Bobby Lee coming home in a flag draped coffin at Dover Filed" and some refernces to how comfy the folks are who order up the slaughter and let it fly....

Yeah, ol' hippie, "Sam Stone" is a great song but if I were gonna do a John Prine song I'd make it "Your Flag Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore"...

B~

Subject: RE: 'Support the Troops' songs???
From: Beer
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 08:34 PM

Good writing Bobert.