The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62853   Message #1018946
Posted By: Jim Dixon
14-Sep-03 - 08:34 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY YANK AND JOHNNY REB (from Driftwood
Grandpa Jones and Jimmy Driftwood recorded "Billy Yank and Johnny Reb."

An archival recording of Jimmy Driftwood singing this song in 1960 can be found at The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection at Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas:

BILLY YANK AND JOHNNY REB

Who's gonna blow the bugles and give the final cry?
Who's gonna fire the Gatling gun, and who's gonna bravely die?
Who's gonna be the daring? Who's gonna be the bold?
Who's gonna bathe in pools of blood and sleep out in the cold?

CHORUS: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.
Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.
Billy Yank, Johnny Reb.
Billy Yank, Johnny Reb.

Who's that with the blisters on their feet and mouth?
Not them politicians in the North and in the South.
Who's that in the moonlight talking with his pa?
Who's that in the bushes trading coffee for a chaw? CHORUS

When the war is over, Lawsy mercy me,
Who's gonna guard our country from some foreign enemy?
Who's gonna drive the cattle? Who's gonna feed the mill?
Who's gonna plow the cotton and corn? Who's a-gonna run the still? CHORUS

Who's gonna court the ladies and buy their wedding bands?
Who's gonna shoe their pretty little feet and glove their pretty little hands?
Who's gonna be the leaders? Who's gonna be the men?
Who's gonna see that we don't ever fight ourselves again? CHORUS