Here Comes Uncle Sam

Annotation

The song "Here Comes Uncle Sam" (ABC-Paramount # 10728), written, produced, and performed by Richie Kaye, and released in Hollywood, California, USA, was a garage rock song looking at the draft. It leaned towards the anti-war category. The song is narrated in the first person, from a man who has finished school, and is therefore eligible to fight in Vietnam: "I'm through with school, now I'm 1-A" - a reference to the military classification for selecting who is available for military service. The narrator expressed reluctance to fight: "don't want to fight...don't want to die". The song was also critical of Uncle Sam sending him to fight and putting his life at risk: "they are standing there and I'll come home dead". The narrator also did not want a hair cut!: "he want to...cut off my hair".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Don't want to fight with another man / Don't want to die in another land / I'm through with school, now I'm 1-A / I got the letter, now they are taking me away / Here comes Uncle Sam / He wants to take me by the hand / Cut off my hair, and give me a gun / Telling me there is a war to be won / I need this bag like a hole in the head / They are standing there and I'll come home dead / I'm not trying to be brave or a man / I'm only a kid and I don't understand / It seems I'm old enough to kill and destroy / The gun I play with is no longer a toy / The guys I shoot at, don't know there name

Notes

ABC-Paramount 10728 (45-12798), white promotional label marked "Promotional Copy — Not for Sale"; "Here Comes Uncle Sam" (Richie Kaye), 3:15, Greenleaf Music, Inc. (BMI); produced by Richie Kaye & Murray Wecht for Budd/Greenleaf Productions; "A Product of ABC Paramount Records, Inc." [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

Draft · Anti-War

In collections

Draft Songs · Garage Rock Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]