With God on Our Side
Patriot Game - Dominic Behan
(„The Times They Are A-Changin'”, 1964 Columbia)
słowa i muzyka: Dominic Behan 1960 / Bob Dylan 1963
Patriot Game, the original, as written and performed by
Dominic Behan 1960. The melody and lyrical structure was used
by Bob Dylan in crafting With God On Our Side, first performed
April 1963. Behan's original contains two versus not sung by the
Clancy Brothers in their popuar version.
C F e F e G7 C
C F e
Oh my name it ain't nothin'
F e G7 C
My age it means less
F e G C
The country I come from
F C
Is called the Midwest
F e G C
I's taught and brought up there
F C
The laws to abide
F e
And that the land that I live in
F e G7 C
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns on their hands
And God on their side.
The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
Patriot Game - Dominic Behan
With God On Our Side {Live at Town Hall 1963} (23/25) - Elston Gunn
”
With God on Our Side” is a song by Bob Dylan, released as the third track on his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin'. Dylan first performed the song during his debut at The Town Hall in New York City on April 12, 1963. Dylan is known to sing the song only rarely in concert.
The lyrics generally address the notion of humans that God or some other higher power(s) invariably sides with them and opposes those with whom they disagree, and thus they don't question the morality of wars fought and atrocities committed by their country. Dylan mentions various wars and events from United States and world history, including the slaughter of Native Americans in the nineteenth century, the Spanish-American War, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot.
Radio personality Tim Riley once wrote: „'With God on Our Side' manages to voice political savvy mixed with generational naivete” as it „draws the line for those born long enough after World War I to find its issues blurry ('the reasons for fightin'/I never did get') and who view the forgiveness of the World War II Germans as a farce.”
Dylan claims „With God on Our Side” is an entirely original composition, however, its melody very strongly resembles that of „The Patriot Game”, a song with lyrics written by Dominic Behan and a melody borrowed from the traditional Irish folk song „The Merry Month of May”. Behan called Dylan a plagiarist and a thief, but Dylan never responded to Behan's claims.
In the introduction to the song at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963 Dylan has the following to say, „Yeah. You know, Jean Redpath sang a song here awhile ago which I heard Liam Clancy sing about two years ago and I was listening to her sing it and I thought that I never, uh, I thought I wrote this song called With God On Your Side. And it must have somewhere stayed in the back of my mind hearing Liam Clancy singing The Patriot Game.”
Dylan was familiar with „The Patriot Game”, having first been introduced to the song by Scottish folksinger Nigel Denver. Scottish writer and folksinger Jim McLean said he remembers Dylan asking him in late 1962: „'What does it mean, 'Patriot Game'?'…I explained--probably lectured him--about Dr. Johnson, who's one of Dominic's favorite writers, and that's where Dominic picked up [the] saying: 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.'”