CAMSCO Music is happy to announce the first publication of a new series: "Occasional Papers in Folklore"---works that are too lengthy for Journal articles, but don't have the length for a full-sized book. The first paper in this series is our own Jon Lighter's The Best Anti-War Song Ever Written—a study of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye."
    That "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" is an anonymous song of Irish origin, created as a bitter indictment of war and long predating the War Between the States has become nearly universally accepted–endorsed by recording artists and by Alan Lomax, by the Times of London and by many amateur folksingers who perform it. It is frequently claimed in such accounts that Union army bandmaster Patrick S. Gilmore's composition "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"(1863), with its idealized welcome for the representative soldier "Johnny" was an insidious rewrite that, in the words of historian Robert V. Wells, "clearly served the need for Civil War propaganda." Gilmore's purported use of the Irish song's melody, stanzaic form and situation is seen as a successfully manipulative effort to replace an earlier, more genuine work of art whose deeply pacifist message the war-makers could not allow to go unchallenged.
    But is any of that true at all? Jonathan Lighter, Lecturer in English at the University of Tennessee and editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang reveals the surprising history of the lyrics and melody of"Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye", uncovering its roots and tracing its ever-changing role in popular culture up to the present day.
    The Best Anti-War Song Ever Written thoroughly explores the origins of both the song's meldy and its lyrics, and is painstakingly referenced.
    ISBN 978-1-935243-89-2   72 pages softcover       $9.95 (US/ £6.40 UK)