The Torn Flag

Annotation

The song "The Torn Flag", which featured on the album Pete Seeger Now (Columbia Records # CS 9717) - the lyrics of which first appeared in Broadside # 91, dated 1968 - was a Vietnam-era protest - the flag was often used in both patriotic and protest songs as a symbol for the country and presenting a position on the war. Seeger here focused on hypocrisy: "it had been used to wrapping lies, it smelled and stank and attracted all the flies".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: At midnight in a flaming angry town / I saw my country's flag lying torn upon the ground / I ran in and dodged among the crowd / And scooped it up, and scampered out to safety / And then I took this striped old piece of cloth / And tried my best to wash the garbage off / But I found it had been used to wrapping lies / It smelled and stank and attracted all the flies / While I was feverishly at my task / I heard a husky voice that seemed to ask / "Do you think you could change me just a bit?... / My blue is good, the color of the sky / The stars are good for ideals, oh, so high / Seven stripes of red are strong to meet all danger / But those white stripes: they, they need some changing

Notes

Columbia Stereo CS 9717, "Pete Seeger Now with Bernice Reagon & The Reverend Fred Kirkpatrick"; produced by John Hammond, engineering Edward T. Graham and Frank Bruno; © 1968 Sanga Music, Inc.; cover photo John Berg, flag by Pete Seeger; manufactured by Columbia Records/CBS Inc., 51 W. 52 Street, New York. This copy is stamped "Demonstration Record – Not for Sale" in red. Side 1 includes Talking Ben Tre (2:20), Backlash Blues (3:55) and The Torn Flag (BMI, 3:23, with Bernice Reagon); He's Long John is "performed by Bernice Reagon". The front cover shows a hand rising from water holding a small psychedelic-striped American flag. The back carries photographs by Diana J. Davies and David Gahr of Seeger with Bernice Reagon and of a civil-rights gathering, a captioned lyric "The world is big and round and it's full of people just like me, who are black, beige, yellow and brown" (© 1967 by…

About the artist

Iconic American contemporary folk singer, Pete Seeger (born 3 May 1919 in Manhattan, New York, USA, died on 27 January 2014, same location) played a key role in the 1950s contemporary folk revival and the 1960s anti-war and Civil Rights movement. He often wrote political songs, protesting against war, segregation, and calling for environmental protection. His body of songs referencing the Vietnam War is significant in both themes and volume: "The Willing Conscript" on the album Broadside Ballads Volume 2 (1963); "Beans in My Ear", "King Henry", and "The Draft Dodger Rag" on Dangerous Songs!?…

Themes

Anti-War · Counter-Culture & Hippies

In collections

Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Pete Seeger Songs