I Could Never Be President

Annotation

Johnnie Taylor, primarily known as a southern soul singer, also worked with other genres, such as gospel, blues, and R&B. Born Johnnie Harrison Taylor on 5 May 1938 in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, he started out singing in several Chicago, Illinois based gospel groups - The Five Echoes (1952-54) and The Highway QC's (1953-57) - and later on the Houston, Texas soul scene with The Soul Stirrers (lead tenor vocals, 1956-63). He died in Duncanville, Texas (31 May 2000). In 1970 he released, as a solo artist, the famous single "Jody Got Your Girl and Gone" (Stax Records # STA-0085) about a mythical man in blues and jazz tunes who seduced the wives and girlfriends of soldiers, prisoners, and those away from home. It reached # 1 in the Billboard R&B charts, and # 28 in the Hot 100. A year earlier, in 1969, he released the song "I Could Never Be President" (Stax Records # STA-0046) in which he said that if elected president he would "bring home all the fellows from over in Vietnam" and redeploy them to protect his sweetheart from the world. Thus while not really a song about the war, it indicated the prominence of the issue.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation

Johnnie Taylor, primarily known as a southern soul singer, also worked with other genres, such as gospel, blues, and R&B. Born Johnnie Harrison Taylor on 5 May 1938 in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, he started out singing in several Chicago, Illinois based gospel groups - The Five Echoes (1952-54) and The Highway QC's (1953-57) - and later on the Houston, Texas soul scene with The Soul Stirrers (lead tenor vocals, 1956-63). He died in Duncanville, Texas (31 May 2000). In 1969, he released the song "I Could Never Be President" (Stax Records # STA-0046) in which he said that if elected president he would "bring home all the fellows from over in Vietnam" and redeploy them to protect his sweetheart from the world. Thus while not really a song about the war, it indicated the prominence of the issue. A year later he released the song "Jody Got Your Girl and Gone" (Stax Records # STA-0085), which does not mention war or soldiers, but has often been associated with the Vietnam conflict, appearing on several compilations (such as Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die). The lyrics focused on the fear of a man loosing his girl while away from home - thoughts that are closely associated with the soldier…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

American soul singer, born 5 May 1934 in Crawfordsville, Arkansas; died 31 May 2000 in Dallas, Texas. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War

In collections

US Domestic Perspective Songs · Jody Songs · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs