Lyr Req: Johnny Reb

Subject: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
From: GUEST,Kathy
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 04:53 PM

I am looking for this American Civil War song. It was on an old album of my mother's but when I went through her collection to find it, it was gone. What I do remember of it is this:

Oh Johnny Reb,
Oh Johnny Reb,
A soldierman can't cry,
Don't let me be a coward Lord,
I'm not afraid to die.

My life sixteen years have been,
Sweet as honey cold.
When the fightings over Lord,
Take Johnny Reb back home.


The other verses is him contemplating the campfires of the enemy and the comming battle the next day. It was supposed to be just before one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Kathy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 11:34 PM

I'd bet that line is "Sweet as honeycomb" -- it rhymes better and it makes better sense.

But I couldn't find anything about the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 12:14 AM

I vaguely remember that the song was meant to show the Southern side of Johnny Reb, a name given Southern soldiers by the North. I also think that it was post Civil War and appeared in a book.
A long time since I have been in the southeast and my memory could be wrong.
I hope someone finds it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 04:14 PM

Unrelated to the song, "Rebel Soldier," and the later song, "Legend of a Rebel Soldier," at least the versions I could find. I seem to remember it as a poem rather than a song.

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNY REB (Merle Kilgore)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Sep 03 - 08:19 PM

Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and The Country Gentlemen all recorded this one:

(Copied from http://www.cowboylyrics.com/tabs/HortonJohnny/JohnnyRebtab.html)

JOHNNY REB
(Merle Kilgore)

You fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

Saw you a-marchin' with Robert E. Lee.
You held your head a-high, tryin' to win the victory.
You fought for your folks but you didn't die in vain.
Even though you lost, they speak highly of your name.

'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

I heard your teeth chatter from the cold outside.
Saw the bullets open up the wounds in your side.
I saw the young boys as they begin to fall.
You had tears in your eyes, 'cause you couldn't help at all.

But you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

I saw General Lee raise the saber in his hand.
Heard the cannons roar as you made your last stand.
You marched in the battle with the gray and the red.
When the cannons' smoke cleared, took days to count the dead.

'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

When Honest Abe heard the news about your fall,
The folks thought he'd call a great victory ball,
But he asked the band to play the song Dixie
For you, Johnny Reb, and all that you believed.

'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
Yeah, you fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

You fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.

FADES-
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.
Yeah, you fought all the way, Johnny.

Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY YANK AND JOHNNY REB (from Driftwood
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Sep 03 - 08:34 PM

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

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Reb
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Sep 03 - 09:02 PM

Horton can be heard singing "Johnny Reb" on the Record Lady, Request List 7.
http://recordlady.webgcs.com/main2.htm

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNY REB, THAT'S ME (from Eddy Arnold)
From: nancyjo
Date: 15 Sep 03 - 02:59 PM

Kathy - the song you are looking for is called JOHNNY REB, THAT'S ME, written by Willis S. Graham. Eddy Arnold recorded it on his 1959 album THEREBY HANGS A TALE. This album as been re-issued on a Bear Family CD as a double album along with CATTLE CALL. It is a very haunting rendition. Here are the lyrics, as Eddy Arnold sings them --

JOHNNY REB, THAT'S ME

Just a lonely soldier lad
Johnny Reb, that's me
Far away from all that's home
O Dear God, hear my plea

Hiding in the valley there
Yankee soldiers wait
When the battle starts at dawn
I know I'll meet my fate

Oh Johnny Reb
Oh Johnny Reb
A soldier man can't cry
Don't le me be a coward, Lord
I'm not afraid to die

My life's 16 years of age
Sweet as honeycomb
When the fighting's over, Lord
Take Johnny Reb back home.

When the fighting's over, Lord
Take Johnny Reb back home.



nancyjo