What Do You Win When You Win a War

Annotation

Gene Stridel released the anti-war song "What Do You Win When You Win a War" (Mercede Records # JM 3002). He featured in the New York-based 1940s group The Striders (under the name "Eugene Strider").1 He died in 1973. The label, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida took its name from its building: The Mercede Building, 2727 East Oakland Park Boulevard. The label also released the Vietnam-P.O.W. song I Promise I'll Wait by Nancy. The lyrics presented war as futile and harmful to society, whether a success or not: "you win nothing! The winners lose, for there's nothing to win except death and destruction". The narrator particularly singled out the negative impact of war on the soldiers and veterans - an early interpretation of their readjustment to civilian life and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ("the shell shocked...boys who...lost their mind"), themes usually found in post-war songs. Also note the reference to P.O.W.s: "do you think of the cost? Do our prisoner's of war and all that they've lost?". Co-composed by Al Jacobs, who wrote the 1940 (Second World War) patriotic folk song "This Is My Country", and Gerry Granahan (who also produced). Arranged by Arnold Goland.Sources1Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks: The Striders↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

Gene Stridel released the anti-war song "What Do You Win When You Win a War" (Mercede Records # JM 3002). He featured in the New York-based 1940s group The Striders (under the name "Eugene Strider").1 He died in 1973. The label, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida took its name from its building: The Mercede Building, 2727 East Oakland Park Boulevard. The label also released the Vietnam-P.O.W. song I Promise I'll Wait by Nancy. The lyrics presented war as futile and harmful to society, whether a success or not: "you win nothing! The winners lose, for there's nothing to win except death and destruction". The narrator particularly singled out the negative impact of war on the soldiers and veterans - an early interpretation of their readjustment to civilian life and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ("the shell shocked...boys who...lost their mind"), themes usually found in post-war songs. Also note the reference to P.O.W.s: "do you think of the cost? Do our prisoner's of war and all that they've lost?". Co-composed by Al Jacobs, who wrote the 1940 (Second World War) patriotic folk song "This Is My Country", and Gerry Granahan (who also produced). Arranged by Arnold Goland. Sources1Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks: The Striders↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: What do you win when you win a war? / How do you celebrate? / Do you count the homes that were bombed... / And coffin and graves that they filled / Do you count tears that were spilled by the mother's of the boys that were killed / And each mother thinking - my boy, nine months of anticipation and pain and twenty years of hope all gone with one telegram / 'Dear Mrs. Doe, we regret to inform you that your son John'... / Do you shout hooray for the lame and the blind, or for all the limbs that were left behind? / Do you say, lets hear it for the shell shocked boys who won a battle but lost their mind? / Then ship home with a medal and then look for a job which is hard to find / Or do you say lets give a big hand for the boys trying to get back into the civilian game... / Do you think of the misery? / Do you think of the cost? / Do our prisoner's of war and all that they've lost? / Do you think of the orphans who've lost all they have on the that one night?... / Do you think of your buddy...who sleeps beneath a cross in some foreign soil? / Or do you think of the moments of shelling a town and then from a hilltop you watch it burn down?... / What do you win, you win nothing / The winners lose, for there's nothing to win except death and destruction and hunger for homeless children / Oh please dear god show us how to live in peace / And love with our fellow man and let us have war no more/ And never again will a mother read a telegram

Notes

Mercede JM 3002, white label with palm-tree motif, The Mercede Building, Fort Lauderdale, Sunny Florida, U.S.A.; "What Do You Win When You Win a War", written by Al Jacobs, author of "This Is My Country", and Gerry Granahan, author of "Click Clack", 3:35, Mercede Power of Music (ASCAP), © 1971 Doc Whipple Music Corp. (ASCAP); produced by G. Granahan, arranged by Arnold Goland. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Gene Stridel (born Eugene Strider, 1927; died 1973, aged 45) was an American popular singer. He began as a member of the male R&B vocal group the Striders in the late 1940s, backing Savannah Churchill and playing the Apollo and the London Palladium; after the group folded he served in the Air Force, then recorded solo from 1958 to 1972 for Ford, Verve, Columbia, Atlantic and Mercede while working the cocktail-lounge circuit, appearing on the Tonight Show. 'What Do You Win When You Win a War' (written by Al Jacobs and Gerry Granahan, produced by Granahan, arranged by Arnold Goland) was issued…

Themes

Anti-War · Vet · P.O.W. · Orphan · K.I.A. · Medals · PTSD

In collections

P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · PTSD Songs