With God on Our Side

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With God on Our Side
Bob Dylan
publication January 13, 1964
length 7:08
Genre (s) Folk
Author (s) Bob Dylan
album The Times They Are a-Changin '
1964

With God on Our Side is a folk song by Bob Dylan , released on January 13, 1964 as the third track on The Times They Are a-Changin ' album . Dylan sang the anti-war song for the first time on its debut in New York's Town Hall on April 12, 1963. With God on Our Side , he has performed extremely rarely at concerts.

Texts

Lyrics
With God on Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin '
My age it means less.
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
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

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
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 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 starts
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

Through 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

The texts basically relate to the human relationship that God or some other higher power is inevitably at their side and speaks out against those with whom they disagree, and not to question the morality of wars and atrocities. Dylan mentions several historical events, including the killing of Native Americans in the nineteenth century, the Spanish-American War , the American Civil War , the First and Second World Wars , the Holocaust , the Cold War, and the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot ; the text made no explicit reference to the Vietnam War until an additional stanza was added to live performances in the 1980s:

In the nineteen-sixties came the Vietnam War
Can somebody tell me what we're fightin 'for?
So many young men died
So many mothers cried
Now I ask the question
What God on our side?

The lyrics vary with interpretations by Dylan and other singers.

Controversies on the composition

With God on Our Side's melody is essentially identical to The Patriot Game , a song written by Dominic Behan and a melody borrowed from the Irish folk song The Merry Month of May . The opening stanza is also similar to the second stanza of Behan's text, in which the narrator gives his name and age. Behan publicly scolded Dylan for claiming that the melody was his own composition. Dylan's refusal to acknowledge Behan's lyrical structure led to Behan's reaction that it might be believed that the authenticity of Dylan's oeuvre ought to be questioned. Behan followed the same approach to writing the songs as Dylan, borrowing the melody from The Merry Month of May himself .

In announcing the song at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, Dylan said, “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'. " (German about: "Yes. You know, Jean Redpath sang a song here a while ago that I heard from Liam Clancy about two years ago, and I heard her sing, and I thought that I never, uh .. . wrote that song called With God on Our Side . And it must have stuck somewhere in the back of my mind how Liam Clancy sang The Patriot Game . ")

Dylan had been familiar with The Patriot Game since the song was first introduced by Scottish folk singer Nigel Denver . Scottish folk singer and writer Jim McLean said he remembered Dylan asking him in late 1962, “What does it mean, 'Patriot Game'?”… I explained - probably something about Dr. Samuel Johnson , who was one of Dominic's favorite writers, and Dominic recorded it: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." (German: "Patriotism is a villain's last refuge.")

Live recordings

Dylan and Joan Baez performed With God on Our Side as a duet at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1963 and July 1964, and their July 27, 1963 appearance was for Newport Broadside: Topical Songs at the Newport Folk Festival 1963 (Vanguard VSD-79144 ) recorded.

Another recording by Dylan and Baez from October 31, 1964 can be found on the 2004 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall .

Dylan's interpretation of the song on the Bob Dylan Unplugged album was released in 1995.

Cover versions

Film and documentation

With God on Our Side is played during the credits of two films, so in the documentary about anti-Semitism Constantine's Sword by Oren Jacoby from the year 2007 and the Oliver Stone -Biografie about the US President George W. Bush W. of 2008 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Text from With God on Our Side online, (English)
  2. ^ Robert Shelton: No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan . Beech Tree Books, New York 1986, ISBN 0-688-05045-X , p. 213. (English)
  3. ↑ Sean Wilentz : Bob Dylan in America . Doubleday, New York 2010, ISBN 9780385529884 , p. 70. (English)
  4. ↑ Nick Guida: Nigel Denver at the Balladeers - Scotland . Theballadeers.com. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  5. ↑ Sleeve notes from The One in the Middle EP, HMV 7EG 8908, published June 18, 1965