Help: American patriotic songs

Subject: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:09 PM

Can anyone help me in my search for American patriotic folk songs? I want songs everyone will know; I'm not fussy about whether they're black or white or spotted, but they must be moving and patriotic. For instance, I'd put "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in this category, as well as "That's What's The Matter" by Stephen Foster.

I'd be grateful for help on this. Thanks, lads.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Bud Savoie
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:13 PM

The two songs you mentioned are not songs everyone will know.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Jimmy C
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:13 PM

What about " Over There" by George Cohan. God Bless America - Dixie - I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy ? - etc.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:30 PM

If you live in the U.S.A., visit any local library and they will have shelves full of patriotic song books. == Johnny

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:34 PM

I don't live in the US, but thanks for the suggestion anyway. It's not really jingoistic songs I'm after, mind - more the kind that tug at the homesick heartstrings.

By the same token, I can't post a new thread; I'm looking for Joan Baez's track "I Was Born in East Virginia, North Carolina I Did Roam", but don't know what the title is, or what album it's on. Anyone know, please?

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Bud Savoie
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:44 PM

The Baez song is "East Virginia" and is on her first Vanguard album, "JOAN BAEZ," now re-released on CD, VMD-2077. Vanguard is at 1299 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Her version is a Kentuckian one, gotten from Jean Ritchie. There are many more.

By the way, the verse goes: "I was born in East Virginia, North Carolina I did go. There I loved a fair young maiden, her name and age I do not know." With variants.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,The Invisible Blazoona
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:51 PM

Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is one that always strikes a responsive nerve with me. One of the greatsest songs ever written in my opinion.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 07:51 PM

I've just heard a wonderful band called The Carter Family singing it. w0w.

Subject: ADD: East Virginia ^^^
From: kendall
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 08:00 PM

East Virginia

I was born in East Virginia
North Carolina I did go
There I met a fair pretty maiden
Her name and age I do not know.

Her hair it was of a bright sun color
And her lips were ruby red
On her breast she wore white linen
There I long the lay my head.
.

In my heart you are my darling
At my door you're welcome in
At my gate I'll meet you my darling
If your love I could only win.

I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun dont ever shine
Than to see you be another man'darling
And to know you'll never be mine.

In the night I'm dreaming of you
In the day I find no rest
Just the thought of you my darling
Sends aching pains all through my breast.

When I'm dead and in my coffin
With my feet turned toward the sun
Come and sit beside me darling
And think upon the way you done,

If your love I could only win.^^^

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: kendall
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 08:03 PM

two goofs last line, came from somewhere if your love I could only win..ignore...second verse..its there I long to lay my head..

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 08:20 PM

Woody Guthrie's songs are the best bet---with special attention to the things done for the Governmental agencies re: Dams and such. Also, Pastures of Plenty. Those are the patriotic pieces. FOr realism there is a lot more.

Do not, however, forget Phil Ochs and The Power and the Glory. His topical songs too can be considered patriotic in the sense of trying to awaken people to what is really happening.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: paddymac
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 08:30 PM

You might want to listen to Derek Warfield's latest CD - "Sons of Erin". All about songs from the American Civil War. And while you're busy looking up George M Cohen's music, take a look at "It's A Grand Old Flag".

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 09:07 PM

I went looking for East Virginia Blues and found The Carter Family and Flatt & Scruggs. Unfortunately this was like giving whiskey to a child. Now I'm hooked.

What is the ultimate compilation of this kind of music? (not patriotic, that is, but Flat & Scruggs and Carter Family kind of music)

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Sourdough
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 09:20 PM

When I have been out of the country with American ex-pats, the songs that seem to tug best are ones that here in the US seem so common, even trite: Red River Valley, Home on the Range, Down in the Valley. They are songs that almost every American knows, at least partially. When you are up a jungle river with a bunch of homesick American anthropologists, these are the songs that they respond to.

Congratulations on your discovery of The Carter Family. They lie at the roots of American country music.

Sourdough Petaluma, CA

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Alice
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 09:22 PM

Songs everyone will know makes it a shorter list.
Not that all these are folk, either, but here are a few more.

Battle Hymn of the Republic
It's A Grand Old Flag
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (music by Irving Berlin)

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 09:41 PM

The Weavers "Wasn't That a Time" and Woody Guthrie's "Reuben James".

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 10:13 PM

I may be getting in over my head, but here's my working definition. If everybody knows it, it's folk. If everybody likes it, it's good. Here is a song every American knows.

To the tune of "Notre Dame"

Hail, hail to (name of your school) High, Bring on the whiskey, bring on the rye. Send the freshmen out for gin, Don't let a sober soph'more in.

We never stagger, we never fall, We sober up on pure alcohol, While out loyal faculty Lies drunk on the bar room floor, rah rah rah!

== Johnny in OKC

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Alice
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 10:28 PM

JTT, maybe you need to define for us what you mean as American patriotic.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 11:02 PM

JTT: When you talk patriotic I get a certain definition. Possibly what you term as "jingoistic". I believe a narrow definition is best in this case. If you mean songs that reflect the unique nature of America, then you are on a very good start with the CArter Family. Certainly I would rank Woody Guthrie's music in that vein. Likewise I would so lable Stephen Foster's music such although some of it may be considered racist in today's society. In my narrow confines however, for patriotic music may I suggest the following "American Patrol" Glenn Miller "Battle Hymn of the Republic" Various artists "The Star Spangled Banner" Various Artists "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" VArious Artist Usually done as a march. "Yankee Doodle" "Dixie's Land" "Over There" George M. Cohan (Most of his stuff by the way) Not every one will likely know these but then it is a fair representation and all of them are widely known tunes. Keep in mind there are plenty of tin pan alley songs churned out in every war this country (The U.S. A.) has been in that are the worst sort of jingoistic tripe, so you have to sort through the dross. Join mudcat and use the digitrad! It will help immensely and don't be shy about asking the good folks here. Kindest reguards and have a good night. Neil

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 12:26 AM

If you're looking for songs for homesick Americans to sing, also look for "camp" songs, spirituals, work songs. "When the Saints Go Marching In," sure struck a nerve with me when I was in Turkey, and I just about cried listening to a bunch of guys singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."

If most of your group is of an age to remember the same pop songs, you've got tons of material. "Take Me Home, Country Roads," or "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" depending on the generation. Tolerance for smarm gets a lot higher when you're homesick. I've even known it to get a bunch of adults to sing "Kumbayah".

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 06:08 PM

What do I mean by American patriotic? Hmmm. I suppose songs that mean "America" to homesick, nostalgic people, whether they're the blues or country. "This Land Is Your Land" would certainly be typical.

What I've ended up using is, in fact, East Virginia, the perfect song for the purpose. Thanks, everyone.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Sourdough
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 11:11 PM

rabbitrunning

Sounds as though we have had similar musical experiences. I agree enthusiastically with your additions of Swing Low and When the Sains Go Marching In.

Away from the US in isolated situations, it is amazing what peope, including me, find moving.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 12:31 AM

Well, I'll admit to not knowing "East Virginia", but then again, that's one of the things I like about the Mudcat.

I'm reminded of Kipling's poem about banjos. Not sure where the book is, or I'd quote it at you, but it had a lot to do with being far from home and using music to shorten the miles.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 03:29 AM

There's that song that became an anthem during the Gulf War, the title I can't remember, but I'm sure other mudcatter's will. "I'm proud to be an American" is in the chorus, and might be the title. After the war, President George Bush used it on the re-election campaign trail. It was supposed to have been piped in to U.S. troops when victory was declared, but there was some mix-up, and they got James Brown's "I Feel Good" instead!

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 09:34 AM

Hell, I remember that snafu! I was there! The title of the song is "I'm Proud to be an American" and I remember as I said the James Brown snafu. I was stationed aboard the USS Kennedy at the time in the Red Sea. You might add "The Long, Long Trail' but you're right about smarmy songs. "Home Sweet Home" was number one with a bullet on both sides during the Civil War. I can remember one night being off Jeddah Saudi Arabia and some one started sing the theme to the Brady Bunch (A sitcom popular in the 1970s in the U.S. for all of our foriegn veiwers)That did the trick for me and everyone else in the berthing compartment. Go figure. And you thought "Kumbaya" was bad. Kindest reguards, Neil

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: LR Mole
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 11:43 AM

"Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys", especially the way Ry Cooder does it on "Boomer's Story" fits the category, I think.Like many overly brass-banded songs (meaning no offense, you horners out there), the song sung thoughtfully reveals that ghostly battlefield melancholy.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Burke
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 12:10 PM

I can't believe this has not been mentioned. America the Beautiful

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: wildlone
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 02:34 PM

For a source of American Civil War Songs try

War between the States .

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 09:56 AM

Wow, what a great Civil War site. Thanks.

I was going to suggest "Till We Meet Again" and "Tenting Tonight." Sounds as if you have what you needed though.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Yo
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 02:41 PM

Did somebody mention "I am a patriot" from Jackson Browne? Don't know if that's what you mean..... Yo.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:05 AM

Heck, half the best threads I've read keep on going long past the point where the person who started them got waaay more information than they asked for.

The best Civil War song for tugging heartstrings, in my not so humble opinion, is "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight."

We had a recording of Burl Ives singing it when I was a kid, and I can never think of it without hearing it sung in his friendly growl.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 04:53 AM

You'll note that I marked Kendall's lyrics for "East Virginia" with a three-winged harvesting birdie ^^^ - the third wing means the song is redundant because it's already in the database.
But it really isn't redundant. I don't think it's different enough to include in the database, but it's certainly of great value to have all the different variations posted in the forum.
Thanks, Kendall.
-Joe offer-

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: DougR
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:53 PM

GuestJTT: I think what we have here, as Stother Martin's character said in "Cool Hand Luke," is a problem in communication. Perhaps you meant nostalgic instead of patriotic?

When I think of patriotic, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," "America," "Over There," "America the Beautiful," and others like those come to mind.

When I think nostalgic, I think of almost any popular WW II song, "I'll Be Seeing You," "White Cliffs of Dover," "A Nightengale Sang In Barkley Square," "I'll Walk Alone," etc. Or other songs identified with America, like "Home on the Range," " Red River Valley," "Carolina Moon," "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain," etc. DougR

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 03:26 PM

rabbitrunning, I love "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight," wish I could have heard Burl Ives sing it.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 01:16 AM

Here's a link to The House I Live In, which was first done by Paul Robeson and was later a big hit for Sinatra during WWII.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 01:33 AM

Cohan's songs could be considered American "folk songs" now, since they were all (at least all the ones I can think of at the moment) written before 1922 and are PD, not to mention, in the case of "Over There," "Grand Old Flag," and "The Yankee Doodle Boy," very familiar to folks in the US.  Katherine Lee Bates's and Samuel Butler's "America The Beautiful" and,of course, "America," are also PD. Come to think of it, most of the really well known "American patriotic songs" are PD by now.  But Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," the Weavers' "Wasn't That A Time," and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" are not and won't be for a long time.  (Berlin "gave" "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts, so royalties go to them, rather than to Berlin's heirs.)  One really pretty one with not-so-jingoistic lyrics is "The House I Live In," which was written by Millard Lampbell and Earl Robinson during WWII, is also still copyright protected.

Many people have tried and are still trying to write what will become American patriotic standards, but I think the current copyright laws work against that happening.  You can't even hand out song sheets for them at a picnic without being in violation of copyright laws.
 

Genie

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 06:59 AM

If you put "patriotism" into the Levy Collection search box, it will return with the result: "Found 2421 documents". Patriotism in music is discussed in Timothy E. Scheurer, Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times to the Present (University of Mississippi Press, 1991).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 12:21 PM

Here's a link to Garth Brook's song We Shall Be Free

Subject: Lyr Add: RAGGED OLD FLAG (Johnny Cash)
From: Genie
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 02:04 AM

This song is not historically accurate, of course, because "the US flag" has gone through many permutations since its incipience, but here's Johnny Cash's tribute to "Old Glory."

RAGGED OLD FLAG

I walked through a county court house square
On a park bench an old man was sitting there
I said, "Your court house is kinda run down"
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town"
I said, "Your flag pole has leaned a little bit
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it"
He said, "Have a seat" and I sat down
"Is this the first time you've been in our little town?"

I said, "I think it is," he said, "I don't like to brag
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag
You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware
And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watchin' it writing "Say Can You See'
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packinham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams
And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag but she waved on through

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag
On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through
She was in Korea and Vietnam

She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam
Native Americans, brown, yellow and white
All shed red blood for the Stars and Stripes
In her own good land here she's been abused
She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused
And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout the land
And she's getting threadbare and waring thin
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more

So we raise her up every morning, take her down every night
We don't let her touch the ground and fold her up tight
On second thought I do like to brag
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

Circa 1974
By Johnny Cash

Subject: Lyr Add: FOLLOW THE FLAG (Randy Newman)
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 02:55 AM

I had never heard of this one until yesterday, but I find the song interesting, considering who wrote it.

Genie

FOLLOW THE FLAG
Circa 1988
Words and Music by Randy Newman

 You can stand alone or with somebody else.
 Or stand with all of us, together.
 If you can believe in some-thing bigger than your-self,
 You can  follow the flag forever.

 They say it's  just a dream that dreamers dreamed,
 that it's an empty thing that really has no meaning.
 They say it's all a lie, but it's not a lie.
 I'm gonna  follow the flag 'till I die.

 Into every life a little rain must fall,
 But it's not gonna rain forever.
 You can rise  above, you can rise above it all.
 We will follow the flag together.
 We will follow the flag forever.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: KT
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 04:02 AM

A tiny bit of thread creep.....I'd also be interested to know what songs could be sung in the US which would warm the hearts of those who hail from other countries.....England, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Mexico? Thanks for your suggestions. KT

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:51 AM

For Canada...

Farewell to Nova Scotia,
Northwest Passage
Canadian Railroad Trilogy

Or "This Land is Your Land" with the Canadian chorus.

This Land is Your Land this land is my land
From Bonavista to Vancouver Island
From The Arctic Circle, to the Great Lake waters.
This land was made for you and me.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:07 PM

My favorite is the one sung to Sibelius's "Finlandia," which, I think, goes by various titles. "A Song Of Peace" is one title. It's in the DT under the title "Finlandia," but I think that is a misleading title. (Sibelius wrote the music but had nothing to do with the words. The words were written by an American, I think--at any rate, not written about Finland. I'm told that Sibelius was rather chauvinistic about Finland and would not have embraced the lyrics.) There is also a third verse (maybe a different lyricist) that's to do with God and is found in Baptist and Methodist hymnals, etc.)

Also, the US patriotic song "America" has lyrics that could be sung by a patriot in any (democratic) country (and a tune borrowed/stolen from Britain's "God Save the King/Queen). The only line that's sort of linked to the US is "...land of the pilgrims' pride...," but we're not the only country that ever had pilgrims. (Didn't Chaucer write about them?)

~SWO~

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: toadfrog
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:52 PM

Guest, JTT- I think maybe you are looking for local patriotic songs? If so, I suggest:

West Virginia, MY Home;
My Cinch Mountain Home (Carter Family, must be somewhere on DT but I can't find it;);
Cincinatti, Ohio (I put the words in the Forum, but that thread is apparently not searchable yeat.)
Sidewalks of New York;
Carolina in the Morning,
and maybe "Southie is My Home Town," although I have never heard it, and can't find the lyrics on line.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: toadfrog
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:56 PM

Guest JTT: Here is a thread that may be close to what you are looking for.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 08:26 PM

Guthrie and Ochs are my personal favorites.

If you are looking for an over the top patriotic ballad of the USA Paul Robeson did one called "You know who I am?"

Never mind that it needs a full orchestra and choir as well as the most powerful bass voice in the world to carry it off, if done well with some contemporary edits it is very effective.
I am willing to bet only a handful of people here have heard the ballad.

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:41 PM

Donuel, Do you happen to know where I can find the lyrics to that Paul Robeson song, or maybe an MP3? Is it on a particular album that you know of?

Genie

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD FOR AMERICANS (Robinson, LaTouche)
From: toadfrog
Date: 14 Jul 02 - 04:40 PM

The song is "by" Earl Robinson, and all I can find are these lyrics. They have been "revised" by American Labor Chorus, and no, I don't know who they are. It is a song with a strong 1940's flavor, and the Chorus want to add a bunch of contemporary ideology. To the best of my memory and ability, I've changed it back the way it was (putting the changes in brackets). So there are doubtless some inaccuracies.

BALLAD FOR AMERICANS
Music: Earl Robinson
Words: John LaTouche (Revised by NYC Labor Chorus)

In seventy-six the sky was red
thunder rumbling overhead
Bad King George couldn't sleep in his bed
And on that stormy morn, Old Uncle Sam was born.
Some birthday!

Ol' Sam put on a three cornered hat
And in a Richmond church he sat
And Patrick Henry told him that while America drew breath
It was "Liberty or death."

What kind of hat is a three-cornered hat?
Did they all believe in liberty in those days?

Nobody who was anybody believed it.
Ev'rybody who was anybody they doubted it.
Nobody had faith.
Nobody but Washington, Tom Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Chaim Solomon, Crispus Attucks, Lafayette. Nobodies. The nobodies ran a tea party at Boston. Betsy Ross organized a sewing circle. Paul Revere had a horse race.

And a little ragged group believed it.
And some gentlemen and ladies believed it.
And some wise men and some fools, and I believed it too.
And you know who I am.

No. Who are you mister?
Yeah, how come all this?
Well, I'll tell you. It's like this... No let us tell you.

Mister Tom Jefferson, a mighty fine man.
He wrote it down in a mighty fine plan.
And the rest all signed it with a mighty fine hand As they crossed thier T's and dotted their I's A bran' new country did arise.

And a mighty fine idea. "Adopted unanimously in Congress July 4, 1776,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
That they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
That among these rights are Life, Yes sir!, Liberty, That's right!
And the pursuit of happiness."

Is that what they said? The very words.
That does sound mighty fine.

Building a nation is awful tough.
The people found the going rough.
Still nobody who was anybody believed it.
Everybody who anybody they stayed at home.
But Lewis and Clarke and the pioneers,
Driven by hunger, haunted by fears,
The Klondike miners and the forty niners,
Some wanted freedom and some wanted riches,
Some liked to loaf while others dug ditches.
But they believed it. And I believed it too,
And you know who I am.

No, who are you anyway, Mister?

Well, you see it's like this. I started to tell you. I represent the whole... Why that's it!
Let my people go. That's the idea!
Old Abe Lincoln was thin and long,
His heart was high and his faith was strong.
But he hated oppression, he hated wrong,
And he went down to his grave to free the slave.
A man in white skin can never be free while his black brother is in slavery,
"And we here highly resolve that these dead shall not haave died in vain.
And this government of the people, by the people and for the people
Shall not perish from the Earth."
Abraham Lincoln said that on November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
And he was right. I believe that too.

Say, we still don't know who you are, mister.
Well, I started to tell you...
The machine age came with a great big roar,
As America grew in peace and war.
And a million wheels went around and 'round.
The cities reached into the sky,
And dug down deep into the ground.
And some got rich and some got poor.
But the people carried through,
So our country grew.

Still nobody who was anybody believed it.
Everybody who was anybody they doubted it.
And they are doubting still,
And I guess they always will,
But who cares what they say whem I am on my way

Say, will you please tell us who you are?
What's your name, Buddy? Where you goin'? Who are you?

Well, I'm the everybody who's nobody,
I'm the nobody who's everybody.

What's your racket? What do you do for a living?

Well, I'm an Engineer, musician, street cleaner, carpenter, teacher,
How about a farmer? Also. Office clerk? Yes sir!
That's right. Certainly!
Factory worker? You said it.
Truck driver? Definitely!
Miner, seamstress, ditchdigger, all of them.
I am the "etceteras" and the "and so forths" that do the work.

Now hold on here, what are you trying to give us?
Are you an American?

Am I an American?
I'm just an Irish, Jewish, Italian, French and English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Polish,
Scotch, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, Greek and Turk and Czech and double-check American.

And that ain't all.
I was baptized Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, Lutheran, Atheist, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventist,
Mormon, Quaker, Christian Scientist and lots more.

You sure are something.

Our country's strong, our country's young,
And her greatest songs are still unsung.
From her plains and mountains we have sprung,
To keep the faith with those who went before.
We nobodies who are anybody belive it.
We antibodies who are everybody have no doubts.
Out of the cheating, out of the shouting,
[The American Labor Chorus made drastic changes at this point, but this is how I recall it. T.F.]

[Out of the windbags, the patriotic-spouting,
Out of uncertainty and doubting,
Out of the carpetbaggers, the brass-spitoons,
It will come again.
Our marching song will come again.

Deep as our valleys,
High as our mountains,
Strong as the people who made it.
[And I believe it still,
And I guess I always will,]
And you know who I am.
No, who are you?
America!

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 24 May 03 - 02:21 AM

New site: Patriotic Melodies, Selections from I Hear America Singing (Library of Congress).

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: JJ
Date: 24 May 03 - 08:07 AM

I have three different recordings of "Ballad for Americans," originally "Ballad of Uncle Sam" from the 1935 Federal Theatre Project revue "Sing for Your Supper."

These include the original 1940 recording by Paul Robeson (RCA), a 1976 recording by Brock Peters (United Artists) and a c. 1960 rendition by Odetta (Vanguard).

Subject: RE: Help: American patriotic songs
From: GUEST,Karen
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 03:24 PM

I have been looking for the lyrics to that song "ballad for Americans" sinve we sand it in 1976 for a Bicentenial Celebration. Our 5&6th grade chorus was very proud to have learned that along with several other patriotic songs & the songs for each branch of the military.
The best part was our music teacher at the time was a long haired, guitar playing folk singer that all the parents labeled a hippy! Yet she created a show that really shut them up!