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 figure. This theme often appeared in Vietnam War songs. The term "Jody" originated from "Joe the Grinder" (dated c.1939) - a mythical man in blues and jazz tunes who seduced the wives and girlfriends of soldiers, prisoners, and those away from home (for work or whatever). "Grinder" was an old slang word for sex (dated c.1647). It is thought to have been introduced into the army by African-Americans during the Second World War, used in military cadences (marches), such as "ain’t no use in going home, Jody’s got your girl and gone" - shouted out by a military officer, and repeated by the group of marching soldiers in unison. This type of marching later got the nickname of "jodies" or "jody calls".1 So in this song the narrator warned the soldiers that "there's a cat named Jody...in every town" who snuck around, using the soldier's home, bed, and food. The narrator concluded that it "ain't no sense in going home, Jody's got your girl and gone". The song reached # 1 in the Billboard R&B charts on 20 February 1971, and peaked at # 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 27 February.23Sources1Wordorigins.org (archived copy)↩2Billboard, 20 February 1971↩3Billboard, 20 February 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Jody Songs

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 figure. This theme often appeared in Vietnam War songs. The term "Jody" originated from "Joe the Grinder" (dated c.1939) - a mythical man in blues and jazz tunes who seduced the wives and girlfriends of soldiers, prisoners, and those away from home (for work or whatever). "Grinder" was an old slang word for sex (dated c.1647). It is thought to have been introduced into the army by African-Americans during the Second World War, used in military cadences (marches), such as "ain’t no use in going home, Jody’s got your girl and gone" - shouted out by a military officer, and repeated by the group of marching soldiers in unison. This type of marching later got the nickname of "jodies" or "jody calls".1 So in this song the narrator warned the soldiers that "there's a cat named Jody...in every town" who snuck around, using the soldier's home, bed, and food. The narrator concluded that it "ain't no sense in going home, Jody's got your girl and gone". The song reached # 1 in the Billboard R&B charts on 20 February 1971, and peaked at # 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 27 February.23 Sources1Wordorigins.org (archived copy)↩2Billboard, 20 February 1971↩3Billboard, 20 February 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: If I became President, I know I wont last a day / I would lower all the taxes just to suit your taste / I'd bring home all the fellows from over in Vietnam / Station them around your door so the world can't do you no harm / I'd name every street in the city, honey, after you (yeah yeah yeah) / In the fight against poverty, there's no limit to what I'd do

Notes

Stax STA-0046 (ST-0191), yellow label with finger-snap logo; "I Could Never Be President" (We Three), 2:33, Pub. East/Memphis Music, BMI, dated June, 1969; produced by Don Davis; "Stax Records, 926 East McLemore, Memphis, Tenn. — Div. of Paramount Pictures Corp., a G+W Co." [From the record sleeve and labels]

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 [War Years] · Jody Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs