Today we’re discussing Track 8: ‘When the Yanks Go Marching In’ by Woody Guthrie; a simple (and infectiously singable) reworking of the traditional African-American spiritual ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’ Frequent Woody comrades-in-musical arms Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry play and sing along.
Bob Dylan shouts out Cisco and Sonny in his ‘Song to Woody,’ (easily the best song of his 1962 debut album) including everyone on this track, plus Lead Belly, who we heard in the last track:
Here’s to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too / And to all the good people that traveled with you…
Bob Dylan – ‘Song to Woody’, Verse 4 Lines 1-2
If you’re joining us for the first time, welcome! While in one way each discussion will build on the last, ultimately I’ve organized the series in a way that allows each post to stand on its own. If you have yet to listen this excellent compilation, this link will take you to my recreation of it in the form of a YouTube playlist. If you happened to give my channel a follow while you’re there, I’d be much obliged : )
If you’d prefer to start at the beginning of this series, here’s a link to the Introduction.
Right next to Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie would have to be on the Mount Rushmore of American protest singers; if you’re at all interested in American music history, folk music, protest music, or music in general, you likely know Woody.
Those who’ve been with us from the beginning will remember Woody (as an Almanac Singer) from Track 1: ‘Round and Round Hitler’s Grave,’ and Sonny Terry from Track 6: ‘Move Into Germany.’ If I’m not mistaken, this is Cisco’s first appearance on the compilation.
Cisco Houston and Woody Guthrie sing and strum their acoustic guitars.Sonny Terry plays his harmonica.
The Song
When the Yanks Go Marching In – Woody Guthrie
Genre/Style: Folk, Country Length: 2:46
The Music
Structure C1-V1-V2-V3-V4-C2
Chord Progression I-V7-I-IV-I-V7-I
Key C Major
The Lyrics
Many versions of “The Saints” treat it as a hymn (“O when they crown Him Lord of all…”), which makes sense considering who’s doing the marching, and its origin as a Spiritual. But there are also versions that seem entirely secular, like Louis Armstrong’s terrific 1938 recording.
Title & Chorus
Oh, when the Yanks / Go marching in / When the Yanks go marching in / Boys, I want to be in that number / When the Yanks go marching in
Chorus
Here Woody pulls a slant rhyme switcheroo, replacing “saints” with “Yanks” in the Title and Chorus. Elsewhere, he barely bothers with rhyme at all, relying almost solely on repetition to hold the lyrics together. The only other rhyme found in the song, where “tanks” rhymes with “Yanks,” seems almost unintentional.
The Chorus is only featured twice, bookending the song.
The Verses
Guns and cannons, tanks and planes: all typical wartime imagery. These common images more interesting by adding a little figurative language: the “guns and cannons” of Verse 1 don’t fire, or boom, but “roar.” And the planes of Verse 4 will “win the sky.”
Boys, I want to be in that number / When we set this whole world free
Verse 3
Reflections
‘When the Yanks Go Marching In’ isn’t necessarily a protest song, but it is an anti-fascist song. For all its similarities, I don’t think it’s as successful as Track 1: Round & Round Hitler’s Grave. More than anything, its strength lies in its simplicity, its call-and-response format allows for an instant singalong, even for folks hearing it for the first time.
Welcome to the first of ten posts exploring this terrific collection of protest songs. Today we’ll be discussing the first track on the album, ‘Round & Round Hitler’s Grave,’ by The Almanac Singers—an anti-fascist ditty you can do-si-do to!
The Almanacs do more than dance on Hitler’s grave…they hoot, holler, whistle, and wail around it, all while picking, strumming, and singing about the many ways they’d like to bring about his untimely demise. This is a proper high-spirited hootenanny, with a real sense of joy in the performances, proving you can fight fascism and have fun at the same time.
Pete Seeger (voice, banjo) takes the lead in each of the six short verses, with the Almanacs jumping in with a lively chorus after each, and Sis Cunningham bridges the gaps with a playful accordion part.
If you missed the Introduction to this series and you want to know more about the album, you can find it here.
Album CoverBack Album Cover and Track Listing
Before we dig any deeper, let’s give the song a spin!
Genre/Style: Folk, Country Year: 1941/1942 Song by: Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Millard Lampell Players (shown below, from left to right): Woody Guthrie (guitar), Millard Lampell, Bess Hawes (guitar), Pete Seeger (banjo), Arthur Stern, Sis Cunningham (accordion)
The Almanac Singers
“In 1940…the group climbed into a midnight blue Buick and blazed a trail across the United States, spreading the gospel of unionism and bringing folk music back to the people. Creating a new kind of topical music, The Almanac Singers used old folk melodies to tell the stories of the time while planting seeds wherever they went. They played at parties, rallies, benefits, unions meetings, and informal “hootenannies”, a term Pete and Woody learned on an Almanac tour of Portland and Washington.” – Bob Wolpert (2025).
The folk Protest supergroup known as The Almanac Singers (founded by Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell) grew out of the fabled New York City folk scene of the early forties. Today, the group is best known for their 1941 recording of the trade union song, ‘Which Side Are You On?,’ written in 1931 by American activist Florence Reece.
The Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie will all get their share of the spotlight in future posts (Guthrie sooner than the others, as he makes another appearance on this album), so I’ll save the biographies for another time. We’re here first and foremost to dance ’round Hitler’s grave, after all.
A Little Background on the Song
“We got to sing [the pro-war song, ‘Round and Round Hitler’s Grave’] on January ’42, on a nationwide CBS broadcast, ‘This is War’. But the next day a headline in a major New York newspaper said ‘Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio,’ and that was the last job we got” – Pete Seeger
No Wikipedia page for the song exists; the only direct mention of it on the site seems to be from the above Pete Seeger quote from his book Where Have all the Flowers Gone?, which shares a title with one of his best-known songs.
This song is not among the group’s most popular, which is one of the reasons I dig this compilation. In fact, the recording doesn’t appear on an album until 2001, when it appeared on the Songs of Protest compilation (Prism).
The Song: Overview
Verse 1
Now I wished I had a bushel / Wished I had a peck / Wished I had old Hitler / With a rope around his neck
Verse 1
They’re literally going for the neck in this first verse. The bushel and peck lines are about as stereotypically ‘folksy’ as you can get, and seem transplanted from another song, but they set up the rhyme with neck nicely.
You’ll notice right away how quickly these verses fly by. This song is really about the Chorus.
Chorus
Hey! ‘Round, ’round Hitler’s grave / ‘Round, ’round we go / Gonna lay that poor boy down / He won’t get up no more
Chorus
I suppose songs have been going ’round and ’round ever since people started singing and dancing. Doing so around someone’s grave brings to mind the idiom to dance on someone’s grave, which has been in use since at least the 1800s.
It’s generous to call Hitler a ‘poor boy,’ I take that expression as another bushel-and-peck style folkism.
The final line completes the slant rhyme (go/more) and is satisfying in its finality.
Sometimes I like to try to tune in on each singer’s individual voice as they sing in unison, and say to myself, “There’s Woody!” or “That must be Bess!”
Verse 2
Mussolini won’t last long / Tell you the reason why / We’re gonna salt his beef / And hang it up to dry.
Verse 2
Hitler’s not the only one in the line of fire here. The Almanacs also threaten to make beef jerky out of Mussolini. Or perhaps, since he’s Italian, he’d make a better bresaola: a type of aged air-dried salted beef known for its reddish-purple color.
Verse 3
The German army general staff / I guess they missed connection / Went a hundred miles a day / But in the wrong direction
Verse 3
I don’t believe this line is referring to a literal historical event (please let me know if I’m wrong). I think they’re merely poking fun at the German army and its inept leadership. Particularly, their ill-fated decision to prematurely invade Russia.
Verse 4
I’m goin’ to Berlin / To Mister Hitler’s town / I’m gonna take my forty-four / And blow his playhouse down
Verse 4
Look out! Pete’s got a gun! If you’re picturing the jovial folksinger brandishing a .44 Magnum, I’ve got some bad news: Dirty Harry’s infamous weapon of choice wouldn’t be in production for another fifteen years.
I have the impression that the phrase “blow (the) playhouse down” has some history in song, and I did a little digging, but without much to show for my effort. There’s a song called ‘I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down,’ written by Earl Randall and recorded by Ann Peebles (of ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ fame), but that came much later in 1972. Gillian Welch’s ‘Tear My Stillhouse Down’ came even later, in 1996. Perhaps “playhouse” is a clever nod to the expression “theater of war,” or perhaps I’m overthinking all of this.
Verse 5
How Hitler went to Russia / In search of Russian oil / But the only oil he’ll find there / Is a pot in which he’ll boil
“Opinions may differ on the question of whether or not oil was the decisive motive for Hitler’s attack on Russia. But after ten months of the Russian campaign there can be no doubt of Hitler’s imperative need of the Caucasian oil fields…To achieve his purpose Hitler must have new oil supplies; and he must deprive the Soviet Union of hers.” – Frederick Phillip Hellin (June 1942 Issue)
The concept of an ‘oil war’ is certainly not a new one. I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that the term even has its own Wikipedia page. As a child of the early 80s, I’ve followed the frontline news reports of one oil war after another with fascinated horror: The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), The Gulf War (1990-1991), The Iraq War (2003-2011), and here we are again in 2026, as if it will never stop, as if we’ll never learn.
Verse 6
Now Mister Hitler’s traveling mighty fast / But he’s on a one-way track / Started down that Moscow road / But now he’s coming back
Verse 6
Hitler tucks tail and runs in the sixth verse. Though it is the last, there’s nothing particularly final about the lines here. The feeling is more that this song could go on with any number of verses, ’round and ’round for as long as the players can keep it up, or even better, until all the fascists that plague humanity are tucked safely into their final burying ground.
Reflections
This is a protest song with a vibe miles away from Dylan’s iconic ‘Masters of War,’ with its cutting line, “I’ll stand over your grave until I’m sure that you’re dead.” And that’s part of what I like about it. Is this song among my favorites of this album? Yes. It is also among my favorites by this group, let’s say, somewhere in the Top 5. And it’s one I don’t mind getting stuck in my head.
As a performer, I probably wouldn’t cover it as-is, but I would like to try out the banjo part the next time I get my hands on one. I think you could have some fun rewriting the lyrics by either substituting in updated figures and events (a few should come immediately to mind), or generalizing in a way that says, more or less: Fuck ALL the fascists:
“Hey! ‘Round and ’round the fascist’s graves / ‘Round and ’round we go / Gonna lay the bastards down / Won’t get up no more”
Woody Guthrie (1943). Courtesy of Library of Congress.
*This is the first post in a larger exploration of American Protest Music, Songwriting, and Poetry.If you enjoy this post, please subscribe, share, and comment.Thanks for your time and attention, comrades!
“This Land is Your Land” – The Folk National Anthem
Here in the US, we have an official National Anthem and a Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Closer in spirit to the latter, I say there’s room for another—a Folk National Anthem—and I can’t think of a better candidate than Woody’s best-known song. A song that celebrates not only the unity of a nation, but calls for the sharing of its bounty, champions its freedom-demanding spirit, and honors the glorious diversity found in its natural wonders, its bustling cities, and its hopeful inhabitants.
For me, “This Land Is Your Land” embodies the best kind of patriotism: a love for your country celebrating its wonders and its people, whose impact far exceeds the ‘official’ anthem, with its flag-waving, war-glorifying nationalism. Maybe there’s still a place for the lofty and bombastic “Star-Spangled Banner,” but at this moment, for me, every note of it rings hollow. If this is a democracy (even one on life-support), I should get a vote for my national anthem, and I cast my vote here.
The Radical Verses
Depending on your personal experience with Woody’s masterpiece, you may have expected the above recording to go on for two or three more verses. These verses—which Woody himself never recorded, and were therefore not widely known until much later, thanks to the efforts of his son, Arlo—are sometimes called radical and socialist and bring it into the realm of the protest song.
The ‘complete,’ or ‘extended,’ version of the song may have been first performed by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen as part of the “We Are One” concert for Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration (January 18, 2009). While we’ll sadly never get to hear Woody sing this version in his own voice and style, performances like this still capture the spirit of both the song and the Great Poet-Folk Singer himself.
Patriotism & Protest
After watching the video above, I ask you to read the official song lyrics at woodyguthrie.org. Then decide for yourself which version you prefer. For me, “This Land Is Your Land” meets every requirement for a Folk National Anthem even without the additional verses. But with them, with their defiance of barriers in the name of freedom, critique of wealth inequality, and unwavering spirit of self-determination, it becomes not just an anthem, but one of the greatest protest songs ever written. I say it’s time (past time) to embrace and bring into balance both of these aspects—the hopeful patriotism and the defiant protest—not just in “This Land Is Your Land” and similar works of art, but in our communities, our families, and ourselves.
One Nation, Many Anthems
Who says that a nation needs to be limited to one (or even a small number) of national anthems? A nation’s anthems should be as numerous and diverse as its peoples. So let’s embrace the Black National Anthem, a Folk National Anthem, a Mexican-American National Anthem, a Trans National Anthem, and on and on. After all, the US is not a melting pot, with all cultures melding into a single, flavorless homogeny. It will take many voices, singing many anthems, to bring this nation into harmony.
![Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, facing slightly left, holding guitar] / World Telegram photo by Al Aumuller (1943). Courtesy of Library of Congress.](https://adamastra.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/woody-guthrie-1.jpg)
