If you love your Uncle Sam bring 'em home bring 'em home

[MaineDem]

I just heard this Pete Seeger song. It's been updated to be current so change "boys" to "troops" and "Vietnam" to the war locale du jour...

If you love your Uncle Sam, Bring them home, bring them home.
Support our boys in Vietnam, Bring them home, bring them home.

It'll make our generals sad, I know, Bring them home, bring them home.
They want to tangle with the foe, Bring them home, bring them home.

They want to test their weaponry, Bring them home, bring them home.
But here is their big fallacy, Bring them home, bring them home.

I may be right, I may be wrong, Bring them home, bring them home.
But I got a right to sing this song, Bring them home, bring them home.

There's one thing I must confess, Bring them home, bring them home.
I'm not really a pacifist, Bring them home, bring them home.

If an army invaded this land of mine, Bring them home, bring them home.
You'd find me out on the firing line, Bring them home, bring them home.

Even if they brought their planes to bomb, Bring them home, bring them home.
Even if they brought helicopters and napalm, Bring them home, bring them home.

Show those generals their fallacy: Bring them home, bring them home.
They don't have the right weaponry, Bring them home, bring them home.

For defense you need common sense, Bring them home, bring them home.
They don't have the right armaments, Bring them home, bring them home.

The world needs teachers, books and schools, Bring them home, bring them home.
And learning a few universal rules, Bring them home, bring them home.

So if you love your Uncle Same, Bring them home, bring them home.
Support our boys in Vietnam, Bring them home, bring them home.

Words and Music by Pete Seeger 1966 Storm King Music, Inc.

[OneBlueSky]

1. back in 1969, I was involved in helping to present a concert . . .

by Pete and the Nigerian drummer Olatunji and his troupe to help raise funds for the Clearwater project . . . when we approaced the school board in Nyack NY for permission to use the high school auditorium, we were refused . . . very conservative board, and Pete was a commie, don'tcha know . . .

well, this kicked off a county-wide controversy that raged for weeks . . . we were front page news in all the local papers and dominated the letters to the editor columns . . . eventually a nearby school district -- Ramapo -- offered their auditorium, and with all the controversy, we sold out the show in a matter of hours . . . (lesson learned: controversy sells tickets) . . .

during the concert, Pete sang this song, and when he got to the lines

"I may be right, I may be wrong, Bring them home, bring them home,
But I got a right to sing this song, Bring them home, bring them home."

he literally growled them into the mike, and the audience went nuts . . . standing ovation, cheering, shouted slogans against the war, the whole nine yards . . . great concert, great evening, great and memorable experience . . .

[ClayZ]

3. I Love Pete Seeger!

We were in the market tent selling our ocarinas at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, when Pete Seeger walked up to our booth. He looked at our wares, listened to us SWOON over him and said, "Well, I learn a new instrument every year... I guess this year it will be OCARINA." He then picked one up ant offered to buy it. We could not give it to him fast enough!

I have never been more honored in my 55 years on the planet. I hope he learned a tune or two on the old mud flute.

Those were the days and they still are, I guess!

In the words of Otis Redding, "I Got DRE-EA-EA-MS to Remember."

Ah, memory lane, what a good place to go! Thanks!

[MaineDem]

4. Great stories!

I rode on the Clearwater. A beautiful sloop. Pete wasn't there but a local singer/songwriter named Gordon Bok was.

We're about the same age...great memories from those days!

[OneBlueSky]

8. I even have a Gordon Bok story . . .

Clearwater was launched in 1969, the same year as Woodstock . . . on the weekend of the festival, I was crewing on the boat along with Gordon Bok (whom everyone called Denny, for reasons I never knew), and we were docked in a small town just south of Albany . . .

anyhow, the captain was bound and determined to take his VW microbus and some of the crew up to Woodstock for the festivities, and he left Gordon Bok in charge of the boat for the weekend . . . which we spent doing cleanup/fixup kind of stuff . . . though he was with Clearwater a lot during that first year, Gordon Bok hated the Hudson Valley humidity, and ended up returning to Maine after the crew got back from Woodstock . . . which they never got withing 20 miles of, btw . . . :)

[MaineDem]

9. Neat!

Now that you mention it I may remember Gordon (aka Denny) mentioning at a concert that weekend that he had crewed on the Clearwater.

I know a lot of people who never made it all the way to Woodstock (or Bethel). A friend of mine lived in Ellenville and I'm not sure she ever made it out of town.

:)

[ClayZ]

2. Pete Seeger

Thanks! He is the BEST! Did you hear it on the radio?

[MaineDem]

5. No, on a CD this time but...

I first heard the new version online at Folk Alley. http://www.folkalley.com

[welshTerrier2]

6. ahhh, Folk Alley ...

that's quite a place to be ... i'm tuned in now ...

also recommended: www.wumb.org

[ClayZ]

7. Sweeet! Thank you.... Tuned in now!

:kick: