The Sinking of the Reuben James

"The Sinking of the Reuben James" is a song by Woody Guthrie about the sinking of the U.S. convoy escort USS Reuben James, which was the first U.S. naval ship sunk by German U-boats in World War II. Woody Guthrie had started to write a song including each name on the casualty list of the sinking. This was later replaced by the chorus "tell me what were their names."[1]

"The Sinking of the Reuben James"
Song by Almanac Singers
Written1941–1942
Published1942
Composer(s)music from "Wildwood Flower" by Joseph Philbrick Webster
Lyricist(s)Woody Guthrie

The song is set to the melody of "Wildwood Flower", an antebellum tune by Joseph Philbrick Webster.[2]

Recordings

References

  1. Klein, Joe (1980). Woody Guthrie: A Life. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-50152-9.
  2. Smith, Rod, Rod's Encyclopedic Dictionary Of Traditional Music, archived from the original on December 1, 2002, retrieved 1 December 2002 via the Internet Archive.


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