War Mongering Songs

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: JedMarum
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 09:18 AM

Woody Guthrie is credited with writing "Reuben James" - rousin American sentiment against the sinking of the ship by the Nazi Germans before WWII:

Have you heard of the ship
called the good Reuben James?
Armed of hard fighting men, both of honor and of fame,
She flew the Stars and Stripes of the Land of the Free,
But tonight she's in her grave at the bottom of the sea.

Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?
Won't you tell me what were their names? Tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?

One hundred men went down to their dark and watery grave,
When that good ship went down, only fourty-four were saved.
Was the last day of October, they saved fourty-four,
From the dark icy waters of that cold Iceland shore.

Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?
Won't you tell me what were their names? Tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?

It was there in the dark on that cold and watery night,
They watched for the U-Boat and they waited for a fight,
Then a whine and a rock and a great explosion roared,
They lay the Reuben James on the cold ocean floor.

Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?
Won't you tell me what were their names? Tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?

Many years have passed since those brave men are gone,
Those cold icy waters, they're still and they're calm,
Many years have passed, and still I wonder why,
That the worst of men must fight and the best of men must die.

Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?
Tell me, tell, me, tell me what were their names? Tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James?

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: GUEST,Jack Campin (in Transylvania)
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 04:30 PM

And another one I heard tonight (by the wonderful Andres Mustonen and Hortus Musicus): Walther van der Vogelweide's "Palestine Song", a.k.a. "Nu alrest lebe ich mir werde". We got two verses. It's such a beautiful tune you'd think you'd get a lot more, but nobody ever sings the whole thing, for good reason. It was written around 1204 as a recruiting song for the Fourth Crusade. There are about 30 verses in all, starting in a tone of mystical exaltation at the prospect of being a pilgrim setting foot in the Holy Land for the first time (this being the bit people sing these days) and ending with "sock it to them fuckin towelheads" in Old High German. With, I think, "let's sort out the Christ-killers" in between. It seems to have been one of the most politically effective songs in history.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 06:35 PM

For jingoistic boasting, the (U.S.) Marines' Hymn is a good specimen. I believe it has been toned down a bit, but it used to end

If the army and the navy
Ever look on heaven's scenes,
They will find that country occupied
By United States Marines.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 10:44 PM

I just skimmed through this again to see if anyone had provided the words for "Remember Pearl Harbor," and didn't see them, so here they are:

History
In every century
Records an act that lives forever more
We'll recall
As into line we fall
The thing that happened on Hawaii's shore

Let's remember Pearl Harbor
As we go to meet the foe
Let's remember Pearl Harbor
As they did the Alamo
We will always remember
How they died for liberty
Let's remember Pearl Harbor
And go on to victory


It's not exactly let's go out and kick some ass because we're superior, but it is a call to battle, all right. Now it is also interesting that the Project for a New American Century, in describing how the US government might take power over the Middle East and its oil (and thus, essentially, the world) said something to the effect that the government, in order to justify the militarization of US society required by that goal, might need "a new Pearl Harbor" as justification... conveniently for that point of view, 9/11/2001 was just a couple of years in the future.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 01:09 PM

Joe, see this thread: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6315#2402837

And scroll down to Aug. 8, 2008.

The lines you quote are new to me.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 06:31 PM

I have seen the stanza I quoted in print, with "that country occupied" replaced by "the streets are guarded"; it is also in the version in the DigiTrad. I heard the original from my mother, and I imagine she learned it from one of her older brothers. That would place it around W.W. I.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 07:30 PM

Google turns up no further exx. of your version, Joe. It may not have been terribly well known. Certainly the Marines were doing a lot of occupying in Central America and the Caribbean in the 1920s. Thanks for posting it.

Oscar Brand published a verse about "We fight for U.S. Steel and the oil fields of John D." Another little-known parody.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: GUEST,Woodsie
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 01:44 PM

Here's Pete Jagger War Monger Blair

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 01:58 PM

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: GUEST,Wotcha in Italia - PM
Date: 25 Jun 04 - 03:32 PM
And don't forget "Over the Hills and Far Away ..." from the Beggars' Opera.
"Come Enlist and March I say
And go over the hills and far away ..."
======================

This is not in fact the Beggars' Opera version of "Over the Hills", which begins "Were I laid on Greenland's Coast", but another version to a related but not identical tune.

~Michael~

Bit late to make a correction, I know, but, in interests of accuracy, better late...

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Sep 12 - 01:49 PM

With the help of Harvard's Widener Library, which has *two* copies of _Rhymes of the Rookies_, I looked up the earliest printed source of the Marines' Hymn. Sure enough, it has the line in its diplomatic form, "They will find the streets are guarded". It is clear that "They will find that country occupied" is spurious. My guess is that it was made up, pretty early on, by overeager Marines.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 05 Sep 12 - 02:40 PM

For the earliest appearance of the hymn, see my Aug. 2008 post on this thread:

thread.cfm?threadid=6315#2402837

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Sep 12 - 02:59 PM

It's a bit late, considering the duration of this thread, but if anyone wants to know about the background of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" Jon Lighter has recently published a thorough and a very well researched study of the origins of both songs. It's the first of a series of "Occasional Papers on Folklore" (CAMSCO Music) and is titled "The Best Anti-war Song Ever Written"
$9.95 (+$2.50 S&H)

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 05 Sep 12 - 06:18 PM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kickin-Hitlers-Butt-Anti-Fascist-1940-1944/dp/B000NDDU60

There's some great WWII examples on this 2007 compilation.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: PHJim
Date: 05 Sep 12 - 07:45 PM

Graham said above, "My personal unfavourites are ones promoting bigotry against another country/race/whatever. "Come out you Black and Tans" is about as unpleasant as they come, but typical of the genre."

It's typical of the genre because a soldier would have difficulty killing an enemy if he thought of him as just another guy, with a wife and kids at home, who was drafted into the services. The enemy must be dehumanized, therefore bigotry is encouraged. Call the Germans "Krauts", the Japanese "Nips", the Vietnamese "Gooks", the Afghans "Ragheads"... and they seem less than human and easier to kill.

Subject: RE: War Mongering Songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Sep 12 - 07:51 PM

GUEST,Jim Maffie - PM
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 01:08 PM
Does anyone know the origins and name of a ditty about nineteenth-century British colonial forces in African that includes the lines, "In the end, we have the Gatling gun, and they do not"?

A bit late, but that's not unusual with us here on the Mudcat. It's not in any way a warmongering ditty, but an extract from Hilaire Belloc's Modern Traveller, which is a very funny attack on the whole myth of British Imperialism, written at it's height. (And it's a Maxim, not a Gatlin)

Blood understood knew the native mind;
He said you must be firm, but kind.
A mutiny resulted.
I shall never forget the way
That Blood stood upon this awful day
Preserved us all from death.
He stood upon a little mound
Cast his lethargic eyes around,
And said beneath his breath:
'Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not.'