Hallelujah, I'm a Bum

Annotation

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), released on the label founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world. Also featured in: • Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Songs • Richard Nixon & Watergate Songs • Vietnam War: Mexican-American Songs • Vietnam War: US Military & Veteran Songs • Vietnam War: Peace, Protest, & Anti-War SongsThis album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces - recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina). The album started out with a recruitment song, "Join the GI movement", written by Barbara Dane: "I am a GI rebel as brave as I can be....come and join the GI movement". The song "Ballad of Richard Campos", written by Daniel Valdez, paid tribute to a Hispanic man killed in Vietnam: "in a terminal in Oakland lies the brown body of a man, dead at 27, dead and gone to heaven, killed far away in Vietnam" - thus a Hispanic Civil Rights track. The song "Last Drink With Don" (lyrics written by Fred Gardner, and music by Barbara Dane) took a poetic approach: "here's to the butterfly in the tropics of Tonkin...and here's to the sky that is not filled with planes". The album also covered "Just Another Day" by Bill Frederick (on the 1967 album Hey, Hey, LBJ), while the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" made references to the Kent State killings, Richard Nixon, and the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers, part of the Chicago 1968 demonstrations, both a Vietnam and Civil Rights song. Of particular interest, the tune "The Resistance Hymn" dealt with the draft part of the anti-war movement, in which the narrator went to prison as a conscientious objector. Some people called the narrator a coward for not fighting, and suggested that the protesters provided support to the communists, thus calling them traitors. Also of interest, the album included a re-worked version of the song "Bring Them Home", composed by Pete Seeger, which argued that the war was unjust, and that it was patriotic to bring home the soldiers and end the war. It contained the line "in Chicago or Vietnam, they're tryin' to get us to be the man" - which may be a reference to the Chicago 1968 demonstrations. Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — 1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), released on the label founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces - recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina). The album included a re-worked version of the Pete Seeger song "Bring Them Home", which argued that the war was unjust, and that it was patriotic to bring home the soldiers and end the war. It contained the line "in Chicago or Vietnam, they're tryin' to get us to be the man" - which may be a reference to the Chicago 1968 demonstrations. Also on this album was the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" which referenced the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers.Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Civil Rights Songs

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), released on the label founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world. Also featured in: • Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Songs • Richard Nixon & Watergate Songs • Vietnam War: Mexican-American Songs • Vietnam War: US Military & Veteran Songs • Vietnam War: Peace, Protest, & Anti-War SongsThis album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces - recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina). The song "Ballad of Richard Campos", written by Daniel Valdez, paid tribute to a Hispanic man killed in Vietnam: "in a terminal in Oakland lies the brown body of a man, dead at 27, dead and gone to heaven, killed far away in Vietnam" - thus a Hispanic Civil Rights track. Also on this album was the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" which referenced the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers, related to the Chicago 1968 Vietnam War demonstration and Civil Rights.Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Kent / Jackson State Songs

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), a collection of Vietnam War songs by Barbara Dane and GI's. Paredon released the record, founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces. Recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina) This collection included the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Paredon Records # P-1003), which had the line "guards...on the campus at Kent". This song responded to Nixon's comment on 30 April 1970 (just before the Kent State shooting) when he spoke at the Pentagon, saying "you see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses". The Washington Post ran the headline "Nixon denounces campus 'bums' who burn books", while the New York Times declared that "Nixon puts 'bums' label on some college radicals". A father of one of those killed at Kent State later told a reporter that "my child was not a bum".2. This song also referenced the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers, thus related to the Chicago Seven / Eight.Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩2New York Times, 30 April 1970↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: If you love your Uncle Sam, bring 'em home.... / Stop the war in Vietnam, bring 'em home... / 45 thousand dead and gone and Uncle Sam is in the wrong / We want to end this war right now / Don't take a genius to figure out how / Let 'em fly, or let 'em float, peck 'em up in a bi-ass boat / They said it was a freedom fight, well now that's just about half right! / There’s just one big fallacy, it's our own GIs that wanna be free / GIs fight, and GIs die / Some get rich while Nixon lies / In Chicago or Vietnam, they're tryin' to get us to be 'the man' / Well buddy, I've got news for you / I got better things to do / We're goin' down to Houston town, turn this murderin' system 'round / The gen'rals would like us all to pray / But it looks like marchin's the only way / If they say that's not the way, we'll give 'em one big FTA

Notes

Paredon P1003, © 1970 Paredon Records, PO Box 889, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11202; "Sung by Barbara Dane with active-duty GIs", "Recorded at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina"; edited by Irwin Silber. The front shows a line of helmeted GIs walking and flashing peace signs. The 16-page booklet opens with a photograph of Barbara Dane at the Oleo Strut, Fort Hood, Texas (photo by Carolyn Mugar), and contains "About the GI Movement" by Irwin Silber, on the GI coffee houses and underground papers; "If This Be Treason..." by Barbara Dane, describing singing for soldiers and Marines at the Oleo Strut, Ft. Dix and an Oceanside USO; notes on each song; full lyrics with credits; "Barbara Dane: Singer for the GI Movement" by Howard Levy; and "Barbara Dane Speaks to the GI Movement", reprinted from The Fatigue Press, GI newspaper, Fort Hood, Texas, an autobiographical…

About the artist

Born 12 May 1927, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Died 20 October 2024, Oakland, California, USA

Themes

Kent State · Anti-War

In collections

1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · Civil Rights Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · US Military & Veteran Songs · Draft Songs · Mexican-American / Hispanic Songs