RIGHT OF THE LINE ~ Dermott Ryder


Where are you going me fine young blade,
With your bright blue jacket and your red cockade,
Hauling the gun in the sun and the shade,
For to fight 'for the right' in the morning.

Sold your soul for the shilling of the king.
To follow the gun in the winter & the spring
And fight for the crown the sceptre and the ring
And the 'right of the line' in the morning.

Fired the gun in Germany and France
On the wild raw veldt where the Zulu dance
They buried your body with hardly a glance
Where you died 'for the right' in the morning.

Stable belt hangin' on a wagon wheel
Red for the blood and blue for the steel
Gold the gunners who made the bastards reel,
For 'the right' and the glory in the morning

The guns stand silent as you march away
to the Jungle green, at the break of day.
'Everywhere', I can hear you say,
for the right and glory in the morning.

Battle honours wove in steel and gold
Fought for the youth of a nation sold
In the snow and the rain & the heat and the cold
For the 'right of the line' in the morning.

The pastures are green where the guns once stood
The trees grow tall on nations blood,
Spilled and mixed with tears and the mud,
Where 'the right' was won in the morning.

Remember the battles you fought and won,
for God and for Country, and for duty done.
In freedom's cause your time will come,
when you fight for the right in the morning.

Where are you going my fine young blade,
with your bright blue jacket and your red cockade?
Hauling the gun in the sun and the shade,
for to fight for the right in the morning.


Click for recording by Andy Saunders & Phyl Lobl :
https://phyllobl.net/songs/on-my-selection-album/right-of-the-line/

Phyl writes : “In the British Army the Royal Artillary had the first right to movement of guns and troops in the battle line. Dermott Ryder who wrote the song served in the British Army and informed me that 'red cockade' refers to a bloodstain on a head bandage.”

(the late) Dermott Ryder “says he wrote “Right of the Line” not as an anti-war song, as some singers assert, but rather as a pro-peace song because I believe that the secondary role of the military of a Christian Nation is to justly gain and humanely maintain the democratic peace……”

See also “Dermott’s Last Ride” by Paul Hemphill : https://howlinginfinite.com/2015/03/05/dermotts-last-ride/



Cheers, R-J