Handsome Johnny

Annotation

American folk singer and guitarist, Richie Havens, born on 21 January 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, USA (he died on 22 April 2013 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA) wrote the anti-war song "Handsome Johnny" (Verve Forecast # FTS-3006) which looked at how different weapons had been used throughout the history of modern warfare, from the musket in Concord, the flintlock in Gettysburg, the carbine used during the Second World War, and to "an M15, marching to the Vietnam War". It also looked at the Civil Rights movement: "marching to the fields of Birmingham", and ended with the hydrogen bomb and precision guided missiles. Havens, the first person to take the stage at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, played a three hour set, with this song appearing in the 1970 film Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs

American folk singer and guitarist, Richie Havens, born on 21 January 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, USA (he died on 22 April 2013 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA) wrote the anti-war song "Handsome Johnny" (Verve Forecast # FTS-3006) which looked at how different weapons had been used throughout the history of modern warfare, from the musket in Concord, the flintlock in Gettysburg, the carbine used during the Second World War, and to "an M15, marching to the Vietnam War". It ends with the hydrogen bomb and precision guided missiles. Havens, the first person to take the stage at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, played a three hour set, with this song appearing in the 1970 film Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see / Marching to the fields of Vietnam? / It looks like Handsome Johnny with an M15 / Marching to the Vietnam War / Hey marching to the Vietnam war.... / Hey, what's the use of singing this song, some of you are not even listening / Tell me what it is we've got to do / Wait for our fields to start glistening / Wait till the bomb to start bowling / Hey, yeah, hey, here comes a hydrogen bomb / And, here comes a guided missile / Here comes a hydrogen bomb / I can almost hear its whistle / I can almost hear its whistle / Yeah, yeah, yeah Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see / Marching to the fields of Vietnam? / It looks like Handsome Johnny with an M15 / Marching to the Vietnam War / Hey marching to the Vietnam war.... / Hey, what's the use of singing this song, some of you are not even listening / Tell me what it is we've got to do / Wait for our fields to start glistening / Wait till the bomb to start bowling / Hey, yeah, hey, here comes a hydrogen bomb / And, here comes a guided missile / Here comes a hydrogen bomb / I can almost hear its whistle / I can almost hear its whistle / Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Notes

MGM K14141 (100,820), yellow "Special Disc Jockey Record" label marked "Not for Sale"; "Handsome Johnny" (Gossett-Havens), Unart Music, BMI, 3:52; "Prod. By John Court A Groscourt Prod.", "From the MGM Album 'Mixed Bag' SE 4698"; "MGM Records – A Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. – Made in U.S.A.". It is held in an MGM Records company sleeve ("The Greatest Name in Entertainment!", manufactured by MGM Records Division, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019). [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

American folk singer, born 21 January 1941 in Brooklyn, New York ('Handsome Johnny'); died 22 April 2013 in Jersey City, New Jersey. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War · WW2 · Korea · Civil Rights

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]