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Draft Dodger Rag Lyrics
I'm just a typical American boy from a typical American town
I believe in God and Senator Dodd and keeping old Castro down
And when it came my time to serve I knew better dead than red
But when I got to my old draft board, buddy, this is what I said:
Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I got eyes like a bat, my feet are flat, and my asthma's
getting worse
O think of my career, my sweetheart dear, and my poor old invalid aunt
Besides, I ain't no fool, I'm a goin' to school, and I'm
working in a defense plant
I've got a dislocated disc and a racked up back
I'm allergic to flowers and bugs
And when the bombshell hits, I get epileptic fits
And I'm addicted to a thousand drugs
I got the weakness woes, and I can't touch my toes
I can hardly reach my knees
And if the enemy came close to me
I'd probably start to sneeze
(chorus)
I hate Chou En Lai, and I hope he dies,
but one thing you gotta see
That someone's gotta go over there
and that someone isn't me
So I wish you well, Sarge, give 'em Hell
Yeah, Kill me a thousand or so
And if you ever get a war without blood and gore
Well I'll be the first to go
(chorus)
Yeah I think Jerrybear is looking at the song way too deeply. It's Phil Ochs talking about himself dodging the draft.
Love the title.
This song is about the likes of Danny Quayle and George Dubbya Bush. The sort of rich cowards who are all for war just so long as they don't have to do any of the killing or dying. Who don't think twice about sending other people to kill and be killed so that they may have their money, oil, and power.
Don't forget Bill Clinton...and what he missed out on...he's as guilty on this as anybody...Somalia, Kosovo, continued bombings in Iraq before Dubya invaded again...he never fought in Vietnam, so why aren't you including him with Quayle and Bush...
Did Clinton start a war that a lot of the country feel is unneccesary?
i always thought the song was about himself... and how he'll never go 2 war.... and the verses were sarcastic
I heard it was Phil's take on the fact that Americans had all the military backing and the nation they were fighting at the time had nothing and some American's were still trying to dodge the draft. Think of the poor people fighting the Americans! No equipment, no training and still they fight.
Jerrybear hit the nail right on the head, actually. When Phil Ochs was asked about this song, he said:
"In Vietnam, a 19-year-old Vietcong soldier screams that Americans should leave his country as he is shot by a government firing squad. His American counterpart meanwhile is staying up nights thinking up ways to deceptively destroy his health, mind, or virility to escape two years in a relatively comfortable army. Free enterprise strikes again."
I agree with you LtAxlerod932. The song is about how even though an American boy may be American in thinking 'keeping Castro down' and 'better dead than red', he still doesn't want to go to Vietnam and die for some old rich politician who is only looking to make his pockets overflow with greed.