I am a GI rebel,
As brave as I can be,
And I don't like the Army brass,
And the gen'rals don't like me.
(Ch.)
Join the GI Movement,
Come and join the GI movement.
Join the GI Movement,
Come and join the GI movement.
The damnest situation
The Army ever saw:
We're beaten by our officers
And framed up by the law.
If you won't be a killer,
If you won't make that grade,
You'll wind up sleepin' on the floor
Down in the old stockade.
I tried to read an Article
That was the Arrny's rule.
The C.O. slapped me up and down
And called me a god damn fool.
We hed to sign petitions
And put up such a fight,
Just to pass around a paper
That contained the Bill of Rights!
I was raised in old Kentucky,
Kentucky born and bred,
But when I joined the movement,
They called me a Chinese Red!
The gen'rals ride fine horses,
While we walk in the mud.
Their banner is the dollar sign,
While ours is striped in blood!
As brave as I can be,
And I don't like the Army brass,
And the gen'rals don't like me.
(Ch.)
Join the GI Movement,
Come and join the GI movement.
Join the GI Movement,
Come and join the GI movement.
The damnest situation
The Army ever saw:
We're beaten by our officers
And framed up by the law.
If you won't be a killer,
If you won't make that grade,
You'll wind up sleepin' on the floor
Down in the old stockade.
I tried to read an Article
That was the Arrny's rule.
The C.O. slapped me up and down
And called me a god damn fool.
We hed to sign petitions
And put up such a fight,
Just to pass around a paper
That contained the Bill of Rights!
I was raised in old Kentucky,
Kentucky born and bred,
But when I joined the movement,
They called me a Chinese Red!
The gen'rals ride fine horses,
While we walk in the mud.
Their banner is the dollar sign,
While ours is striped in blood!
Contributed by Alessandro - 2010/3/15 - 13:53
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Words by Barbara Dane
Based on Aunt Molly Jackson' "I Am a Union Woman" (1931)
Album “F.T.A.! Songs et the GI Resistance”, Paredon Records
Sung by Barbara Dane with active-duty GIs.
Recorded at Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Edited by Irwin Silber.
“Back in the early '30s a great singing organizer in the bloody mine battles was Aunt Molly Jackson. She was the sister of two other great people's singers and fighters, Jim Garland and Sarah Ogan Gunning. The whole family was blacklisted from work because of their union activities, and they finally had to move away from Harlan County just to live. But their legacy of songs has stayed with us and keeps on being useful, wherever people are finding the strength and courage to fight for their rights. It seemed to me that this old chorus which used to be "Join the CIO" would help the guys who are discovering that it's important to get together, the same way it helped the miners in those days. Only thing is, now we stay a little shy of hierarchical organizations, having watched people get tricked and double-crossed by their own leaders so often in the past. Now we say, everyone a leader, and everyone a follower in his turn… only do it together!”
(Nota introduttiva al brano dal libretto che accompagna il disco)
A proposito del movimento contro la guerra in Vietnam all’interno dell’esercito USA, si vedano anche le canzoni de The Covered Wagon Musicians.