| "Draft Dodger Rag" | |
|---|---|
| Song byPhil Ochs | |
| from the albumI Ain't Marching Anymore | |
| Published | 1964 |
| Released | 1965 |
| Genre | Protest song,folk |
| Length | 2:07 |
| Label | Elektra |
| Songwriter | Phil Ochs |
| Producer | Jac Holzman |
| "The Draft Dodger Rag" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byPete Seeger | ||||
| from the albumDangerous Songs!? | ||||
| B-side | "Guantanamera" | |||
| Released | 1966 | |||
| Genre | Country folk | |||
| Length | 2:10 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter | Phil Ochs | |||
| Producer | John Hammond | |||
| Pete Seeger singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Draft Dodger Rag" is a satiricalanti-war song byPhil Ochs, aU.S.protest singer from the 1960s known for being a harsh critic of the Americanmilitary industrial complex. Originally released on his 1965 album,I Ain't Marching Anymore, "Draft Dodger Rag" quickly became an anthem of theanti-Vietnam War movement.[1]
Ochs wrote "Draft Dodger Rag" as American involvement in theVietnam War was beginning to grow.[2] The song is sung from the perspective of agung-ho young man who has beendrafted. When he reports for duty, however, the young man recites a list of reasons why he can't serve, including poor vision,flat feet, aruptured spleen, allergies and asthma, back pain, addiction "to a thousand drugs", his college enrollment, his disabled aunt, and the fact that he carries a purse,[2][3] very likely referring to homosexuality, given homosexuality was a way to dodge the draft.[4] (One historian of the draft resistance movement wrote that Ochs "described nearly every available escape from conscription".[3]) As the song ends, the young man tells the sergeant that he'll be the first to volunteer for "a war without blood and gore".[2][5]
"Draft Dodger Rag" was the first prominent satirical song aboutdraft evasion in the Vietnam War.[6] One writer says its humor can be appreciated on its own level, without respect to the political message of the song.[7] Another says it added "much-needed humour" to the protest song genre.[8]
Ochs wrote of the song:
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.[9]
Ochs performed "Draft Dodger Rag" in 1965 on aCBS Evening News television specialAvoiding the Draft, one of the rare instances in which he appeared on a national American television broadcast.[10][11]
On November 19, 1967,The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featured theSmothers Brothers and actorGeorge Segal singing "Draft Dodger Rag".Dick Smothers introduced the song by saying it was about a "great effort" some young American men were making.Tom Smothers added that the song was about a problem and how it was being solved with "good old American ingenuity". They ended the song by proclaiming "Make love, not war!"[12]
Several performers beside the Smothers Brothers havecovered "Draft Dodger Rag", including theChad Mitchell Trio,The Four Preps,Kind of Like Spitting,Tom Paxton,David Rovics, andPete Seeger.[13] Seeger's version was released as asingle.[14]
