When Johnny Comes Marching Home

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Cover, sheet music, 1863
Song
Language	English
Written	1863
Songwriter(s)	Louis Lambert

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (sometimes "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again") is a popular song of the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war.

Origins

The Irish antiwar song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" share the same melodic material. Based on internal textual references, "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" apparently dates from the early 1800s, while "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was first published in 1863.

As with much folk music of this period, many variants in text and music appear as the song is transmitted orally and subject to many external influences. Primacy of one version over another is difficult to prove conclusively because most versions were never written down or published. James Fuld in The Book of World Famous Music (page 640) indicates that some believe the melody is not Irish in origin.

The lyrics to "Johnny Comes Marching Home," written by Irish-American bandleader Patrick Gilmore and published under the pseudonym 'Louis Lambert', effectively reverse those of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", in which Johnny returns home blind and crippled, to the woman he abandoned in order to join the army.

Gilmore himself claimed he based the melody on an African-American spiritual; it is possible he may have unconsciously borrowed from "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" or known a variant with a different text.

The Johnny so longed for in the song is Patrick Gilmore's future brother in-law a Union Light Artillery Captain named John O'Rourke. The song was written by Patrick for his sister Annie Gilmore as she longed for the safe return of her Captain from the Civil War. ("The House that O'Rourke Built" Patti Jo Peterson The Plattsmouth Journal August 30, 2007 page 5, AND "The O'Rourke House" Patti Jo Peterson The Plattsmouth Journal June 15, 2006 page 11)

Other versions

Quite a few variations on the song, as well as songs set to the same tune but with different lyrics, have appeared since When Johnny Comes Marching Home was popularized. The alleged larcenous tendencies of some Union soldiers in New Orleans were parodied in the Confederate lyrics, "For Bales", to the same tune. A World War I variation appeared in 1914, with the similar title, "When Tommy Comes Marching Home."

• The 1880 U. S. Presidential election campaign featured a campaign song called "If the Johnnies Get Into Power".
• Morton Gould's classical arrangement "American Salute" of the song. (1943)

Popular Culture (after 1950)

• Malvina Reynolds wrote different lyrics for the tune in her song "The Judge Said" (1977).
• The Dutch folk group Pater Moeskroen wrote different lyrics for the tune in their song "Vannacht".
• A French version (without vocals) "Johnny Revient d'la Guerre" was recorded by Bérurier Noir, on the album Macadam Massacre (1983).
• Guns N' Roses used a part of the song for their song "Civil War" (1991).
• The melody for the song was used as an intro to "Heaven's Hung in Black" by W.A.S.P. on their 2007 album Dominator.
• The same tune is used for the children's songs "The Ants Go Marching One By One"
• Also, Supertramp saxophonist John Helliwell played the first part of the song as part of his saxophone solo during the "Jerusalem"/explosion section of "Fool's Overture" on the 1980 double live album Paris.
• On their "Dahmer" album (2000), Macabre uses the same theme in the song In The Army Now with modified lyrics, telling about Jeffrey Dahmer during his conscription in Germany.
• An obscene version prevalent in military and Rugby-football circles also exists - beginning "Three German Officers Crossed the Rhine," although this lyric is more often associated with the World War I song Mademoiselle from Armentières.
• Parts of the song were performed by U2 during the Vertigo Tour (2005) as a medley with "Bullet the Blue Sky."
• The melody of that song is also use by the 92nd infantry regiment of Clermont-Ferrand (France) as anthem, with other lyrics.
• UK mobile phone network O2, part of Telefónica Europe started using an instrumental version of this song in a TV advertisement in the first half of 2008

. It is also used as the music-on-hold track played to customers waiting to speak to O2's Customer Services.

• The is also used as a basis for a song sung by Manchester United fans about defender John O'shea
• United States soccer fans sing the chorus to this song during matches as a patriotic hymn to support their national team.
• A version referencing gays in the military was sung by Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) on NewsRadio. "When Johnny comes marching home, He's Gay! He's Gay!"
• For their 2007 tour, Streetlight Manifesto used two instrumental verses to introduce the first song, "Everything Went Numb."
• Paul Wall & Chamillionaire used the melody of this song for both versions of "True" from Controversy Sells (2005).
• The tune was used with distinctly British lyrics by Anglo Saxon for their song 'When Daddy comes marching home'. Released on iTunes (2007)
• Iced Earth used a part of the song for their song "The Devil to Pay" on The Glorious Burden (2004).
• The music for this song is used (with different lyrics) by The Clash for their song "English Civil War" (1979). Country music group Boy Howdy released a version of the song in 1991.
• The song, or its tune, has also been used in the soundtracks of several movies, including:
  • Gone with the Wind (1939 — a band plays it in the background of a scene taking place in Atlanta)
  • The Great Dictator (1940)
  • Stalag 17 (1953 — it is sung by American prisoners of war)
  • The Horse Soldiers (1959)
  • How The West Was Won (1962)
  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
  • Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)
  • The tune was copied for the song "Na bole tum" in the Hindi-language film Baton Baton Mein
• It was also used in the episode "G.I. D'oh" of The Simpsons.
• It was made into a JibJab parody entitled, "He's Barack Obama". [1]

Lyrics

The original lyrics as written by Gilmore, are:

Illustration of a Zouave company on Civil War era broadside of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".

When Johnny comes marching home again

Hurrah! Hurrah!

We'll give him a hearty welcome then

Hurrah! Hurrah!

The men will cheer and the boys will shout

The ladies they will all turn out

And we'll all feel gay

When Johnny comes marching home.

The old church bell will peal with joy

Hurrah! Hurrah!

To welcome home our darling boy,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

The village lads and lassies say

With roses they will strew the way,

And we'll all feel gay

When Johnny comes marching home.

Get ready for the Jubilee,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

We'll give the hero three times three,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

The laurel wreath is ready now

To place upon his loyal brow

And we'll all feel gay

When Johnny comes marching home.

Let love and friendship on that day,

Hurrah, hurrah!

Their choicest pleasures then display,

Hurrah, hurrah!

And let each one perform some part,

To fill with joy the warrior's heart,

And we'll all feel gay

When Johnny comes marching home.

Bibliography

• Lambert, Louis (Patrick Gilmore). "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Boston: Henry Tolman & Co. (1863).

External links

• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" , John Terrill (E. Berliner's Gramaphone (1893)—Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Overview Page—Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Sheet Music), Oldroyd, Osbourne H. The Good Old Songs We Used to Sing, '61 to '65, —Project Gutenberg.
• RealMedia Sample from How The West Was Won
• MIDI and description