 |
| In the summer of 1940 Franklin Roosevelt, pressured
by his party to run for a third term, agreed to once
again be the Democratic Party's candidate for the presidency
in the 1940 election. Roosevelt was pressured by Republican
nominee Wendell Willkie for not doing enough for the
defense of America. As it turned out, in September 1940,
congress passed The Burke-Wadsworth Bill and Roosevelt
signed it into law, establishing the selective service
and authorizing the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
The first draftees were selected later that year. American
musicians reacted to the draft in varied and interesting
ways. |
| |
|
| Draft registrants were
classified by the board in one of 4 main categories.
Those designated 1-A were deemed to be fit for
unrestricted military service. The other classifications
were exemptions or deferments for a variety of
reasons, including conscientious observer status,
family hardship, for being a government official,
and for being a minister or a minister in training.
At the bottom of the list was 4-F: "registrant
not acceptable for military service under the
established physical, mental, or moral standards." Nat King Cole's narrator in "Gone With The
Draft" (discussed below) was happy to be 4-F because
of his flat feet. |
|
But that attitude soon changed. With patriotism running high
only a few months before the attack on Pearl
Harbor, however, the new message in the very popular song, "He's 1-A In The Army and He's A-1 In My Heart"
was clear: The physically fit soldier assigned
to unrestricted duty would not only get the respect,
but also the lovin' of a fine woman. |
|
| |
Separation was, of course, one of the central
themes of the war. In fact, nearly a quarter of the WWII-related songs in the AHC collection deal with that topic. Most of those songs are dealt with in in Part 11, but those related to the Draft and included here. Most of them deal with the forced separation between a man and his best girl. Many make reference to the one year duration of service. These early draftees had no way of knowing
that so very few of them would be returning "in
a year," as a Horace Heidt
song proclaimed in April 1941. They couldn't know that many
would never return, or that so many others would
return seriously wounded, physically and psychologically.
|
|
|
|
Draft songs cut across all music genres. Cliff Bruner and his
Boys represent the Texas Swing sound, and in "Draft
Board Blues," they too lament having to leave
home. But what can they do? Uncle Sam is calling.
Likewise, the narrator in the Nettles Brothers'
"I Feel The Draft Coming On" wishes
he were 55 years old, rather than just 21, so
that he could avoid the draft. Some of the string
picking on this song foreshadows the electric
guitar work that would be the hallmark of the
rock and roll sound more than a decade later.
In "I'll Be Back In A Year (Little Darlin')"
by The Prairie Ramblers, the narrator |
|
patriotically
says goodbye to his two best girls. Six months later they recorded a follow-up song called "Answer To I'll Be Back In a Year", in which the woman left behind characteristically promises to be true until his return.
One of the most interesting
draft songs is Chuck Foster's "I've Been
Drafted (Now I'm Drafting You)". Even before
the war, so many young men, predicting the loneliness
of army life, found lifelines to home in the form
of sweetheart romances. Many of these young couples,
seeking mutual security, got married. Most of
them would delay starting families until after
the war, resulting in the demographic anomaly
called "The Baby Boom." Society placed
clear expectations on young American women too:
be strong, be positive, write your man often,
and remain faithful. |
|
| |
|
|
Reaction to the draft reveals a cross-section of American
race and musical genre with similar notions about giving
up a year for dear old Uncle Sam. Count Basie's "Draftin'
Blues" reluctantly acknowledges that the black
man, like all American men, will have to "do his
share to help defend this dear old land," while
Nat King Cole's narrator "Skinny" has the
last laugh because his flat feet have kept him out of
active service while all his friends with enviable physiques
are all "gone with the draft." Big Bill Broonzy
somewhat sarcastically |
|
| says that he received a letter
this morning from "a dear old uncle" in his
song, "In The Army Now." Recorded just five
days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, it represents
the last of the peacetime war-related songs.. Count Basie also had
a hand in several other instrumentals with draft-related
titles, "What's Your Number", and Benny
Goodman's "Gone With What Draft." Benny
Goodman was known to make good use of the talented
musicians in his own orchestra but also for his
willingness to work with musicians from other
bands, including African Americans. His integrationist
view of music wasn't always popular in an era
still ruled by Jim Crow etiquette. His song "Gone
With What Draft" features not only Count
Basie, but drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Cootie
Williams, and pioneering guitarist Charlie Christian. |
|
|
| |
|
If there's one truism in the military, it's that soldiers will gripe. Not surprisingly, army life for those who had not volunteered for the change of lifestyle was not a welcome change, and the songs reflected that. Many of them, however, or good-humored, like "You're In The Army
Now" by Abe Lyman and his Californians, recorded
November 27, 1940. Despite the notorious bad food
and other hardships (like bedbugs), the narrator
acknowledges that it's rather fun hanging out
with the gang, and at least you don't have to
listen to your wife nagging you all the time.
Apparently not all draftees anticipated missing
their best girls.
Dick Robertson recorded a pair of army life songs in November 1940. One was a remake of the classic World War I song, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up In the Morning," while the other was more akin to the Abe Lyman song.
|
|
|
|
One army life Draft song with a bit of a plot twist was recorded by the Andrews Sisters in early 1941 and quickly became one of the most famous songs of the entire war period. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" told the story of a trumpet man who was so good that his captain went out and drafted an entire band to accompany him. Though the song was recorded by a few others, it was the Andrews Sisters record that made history.
The Andrews Sisters
were a group of singing sisters who patterned
themselves after an earlier successful singing
group, the Boswell Sisters. They were: LaVerne
(contralto, died in 1967), Maxene (high harmony,
died in 1995) and Patty (lead). All were born
in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a Greek immigrant
father and a Norwegian American mother. The sisters
performed |
|
|
| in various dance bands and toured on
Vaudeville before becoming nationally known in
1937. Their popularity peaked during the war years
when they entertained Allied troops, including
performances for soldiers serving overseas, helped
promote the war bond campaign, and even appeared
in several films. During this period they recorded
many songs with Bing Crosby, but perhaps their
greatest hit, one that came to represent the new
sound of swing, was the draft song "Boogie
Woogie Bugle Boy". They were so popular that
some of their records were smuggled into Germany
after the labels had been changed to read "Hitler's
Marching Songs." |
| |
| Any Bonds Today? |
| On December 29, 1940,
President Roosevelt announced he would make America
an "arsenal of democracy". This meant
the retooling of large factories, like the automobile
manufacturing plant at Willow Run near Detroit,
for the making of weapons of war. A few weeks
later, Roosevelt announced the famous Lend-Lease
policy. It was now much easier for America to
send arms to the allies. America too was beefing
up her armed forces, financed in part by an aggressive,
patriotic war bond drive (initially referred to
as the National Defense Savings Program) that
would last beyond the end of the war. The pitch
to buy bonds appeared everywhere in popular culture,
from magazine advertisement, to postcards, to
children's toys, to movie cartoons. Many famous
Hollywood and radio personalities were enlisted
by the government to aid the war bond drive, from
Bing Crosby to Bugs Bunny, and from Frank Sinatra
to the Andrews Sisters. Irving Berlin's "Any
Bonds Today?" urged Americans, many of whom
were still hurting from the Depression, to "scrape
up" the most they could in order to buy "a
share of freedom." |
|
|
Less famous than "Any Bonds Today" but far more militant and rousing is a song Irving Berlin wrote for the Army Ordnance called "Arms For The Love of America."
On land and on the sea and in the air
We've gotta be there, we've gotta be there
America is sounding her alarm
We've gotta have arms, we've gotta have arms
Arms for the love of America!
The urgency expressed in the song of an ongoing arms race was punctuated by the line, "Oh the fight for freedom can be lost or won
by the man behind the man behind the gun." |
|
| In 1941, as white and black men and women alike were
about to embark on a campaign to rid the world of the
most heinous example of State-sanctioned racism in human
history, it was worth pointing out that America's record
on race was far from perfect. That year, Josh White
released Southern Exposure, a six song album
of 78s that railed against racial injustice in America,
from discrimination in housing, to Jim Crow laws. Two
songs, "Defense Factory Blues" and "Uncle
Sam Says" dealt directly with the government's
appeal to Americans to contribute to the war effort
and the contradictory lack of opportunities for black
Americans to do just that. President Roosevelt himself
took an interest in Josh White and invited him to perform
at the White House. White accepted, and he would return
to the White House for visits with the President and
First Lady several times during the war years. |
|
|
| |
|
The war was fought and financed, in part, by seven war bond loans. At the conclusion of the war the treasury department launched one last war bond campaign, this time calling it a "victory loan." The message was that though the war was over, the peace had yet to be won. Irving Berlin wrote new lyrics for "Any Bonds Today?" And Bing Crosby crooned to America's war-weary citizens that "We've Got Another Bond to Buy". |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
