Ballad of October 16th

Here's a strange addition to the blog. I recently learnt this song while listening to a Smithsonian Folkways compilation of WW II Folksongs. It's titled "That's Why We're Marching" and contains a large number of great performances featuring Woody Guthrie, the Almanac Singers , and Leadbelly. "The Ballad of October the 16th" is a strange addition because it really isn't a song in support of the war. Instead, it's a song that the Almanacs recorded prior to the Left's support of the War. This was when the Left still took a largely pacifist stance, before Hitler invaded Russia and fascism became a greater threat to international socialism than the capitalist war -mongers. That said, I've done a version of the song because it's probably the only American folk song (or American protest song, for that matter) that mentions the Motherland - Singapore - in it. That's right - it provides an interesting document of how the need to protect the status of colonial Singapore was being circulated as a justification for entry into the war, and how that position was probably viewed as another instance of capitalist greed by opponents of the war. So here's my version of the "Ballad of Oct 16th"



It was on a Saturday night and the moon was shining bright
They passed the conscription bill
And the people they did say for many miles away
'Twas the President and his boys on Capitol Hill.

CHORUS:
Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damn near believed what he said
He said, "I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won't be safe 'till everybody's dead."

When my poor old mother died I was sitting by her side
A-promising to war I'd never go.
But now I'm wearing khaki jeans and eating army beans
And I'm told that J. P. Morgan loves me so.

I have wandered over this land, a roaming working man
No clothes to wear and not much food to eat.
But now the government foots the bill
Gives me clothes and feeds me swill
Gets me shot and puts me underground six feet.

CHORUS

Why nothing can be wrong if it makes our country strong
We got to get tough to save democracy.
And though it may mean war
We must defend Singapore
This don't hurt you half as much as it hurts me.

CHORUS