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  • "The Sinking of the Reuben James" by The Kingston Trio


    Added on Saturday 23 August 2008 15:15:09
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    Folk song about the first American ship sunk in World War II.

    http://ondeafears.com

    The USS Reuben James was the first American ship sunk in World War II, on October 31, 1941. Although the United States was officially neutral at the time, President Roosevelt had ordered the Navy to provide support to the United Kingdom in her fight against Nazi Germany. The Reuben James was escorting military material when she was torpedoed by a German submarine.

    Woody Guthrie, at the time singing with Pete Seeger in the Almanac Singers, wrote "The Sinking of the Reuben James" (also known as simply "Reuben James") immediately thereafter. While the song sounds like a rousing patriotic anthem, it's worth noting that both Seeger and Guthrie were pro-Soviet Communists and were opposed to U.S. involvement in World War II, until Hitler's betrayal of Stalin caused them to shift their views 180 degrees and support U.S. intervention. Had the sinking happened prior to the dissolution of the Hitler-Stalin pact, it is quite likely that no song at all would have been written, or, if one had, the sentiments expressed would have been quite different.

    The verses are to the tune of "Wildwood Flower," most famously recorded by the Carter Family, and the chorus is original to Guthrie.

    This version is by the Kingston Trio. Some folk music fans do not like the Kingston Trio, quite possibly simply a backlash against the massive popularity they enjoyed in the late 1950s to mid-1960s. I'm no expert on folk and no purist--all I know is that they sing great together and that there is a lot of power in those guitars and vocals--"Reuben James" sounds great.

    I threw this one together myself. The song famously asks, "What were their names?" I've answered that.



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  • SBRS33

    My grandfather was assigned to this ship but he slept in.
    Thursday 12 January 2012 17:17:45
  • antifreetrader

    @drakesucks This is not a political presidential forum,,i withdraw my Ron Paul comment but i totaly do not agree with you....isolationism when you consume 21% of the worlds goods means at 8% of the worlds population you are a economy till our free traders send all our jobs to china and mexico and allow tax loop holes for such eco terrorrist corperations, next why be the world cop and let other countries use resources to build infustructure that we waste on military crap to defend them?
    Friday 06 January 2012 14:15:11
  • WALTERBROADDUS

    FFG 57 is in service to day as the USS Ruben James.
    Saturday 31 December 2011 06:34:18
  • tlee51ftw

    @UncleMikeNJ That era's Ron Paul, Republican senator Robert Taft would not have allowed a DOW at that time. What would have happened is the rather borderline aid we were sending Europe would have been stopped.
    Sunday 18 December 2011 11:31:48
  • tlee51ftw

    @LagunaWSU2  The best line in the whole song.
    Sunday 18 December 2011 11:22:22
  • tlee51ftw

    @drakesucks I did not say all technology, but even the pentagon has cut a few contracts as unneeded. We spend way to much on the military.
    Sunday 18 December 2011 11:21:50
  • tlee51ftw

    @bescalanteaz I'm pretty well versed on history, and my comment about benefits was to show that some military supporters will not cut a bloated military budget but are willing to cut benefits to the poor, the sick, the hungry, the homeless but not their benefits. It is hypocritical and the military budget is way too big. There can be many cuts without damage to national security. Republican Eisenhower warned of the "military-industrial complex" and we apparently didn't listen.
    Sunday 18 December 2011 11:20:31
  • gerard55ish

    We know of the Reuben James here on the other side of the world. My children sang in memory of the USS Reuben James at a school concert about 17 years ago at Kurow High School, North Otago, New Zealand. I have served in the Royal Navy and have an interest in naval history and warships.
    Sunday 18 December 2011 00:56:15
  • drakesucks

    @tlee51ftw we need the new technology because it going to be real fun using bullets against directed energy weapons
    Saturday 17 December 2011 23:14:26
  • drakesucks

    @antifreetrader ron paul is an inbred hick who would bring us back to pre-ww2 isolationism which damn near destroyed us Barack Obama 2012
    Saturday 17 December 2011 23:11:17
  • LagunaWSU2

    Thank you for telling the names.
    Tuesday 13 December 2011 05:36:27
  • BigSkyShooter

    This has always been one of my favorite Kingston Trio songs. Thanks for posting it.
    Saturday 03 December 2011 01:48:01
  • EternaSkies

    Thank you. Decades I wondered
    Tuesday 29 November 2011 18:10:02
  • antifreetrader

    Yea we need to control the seas alright as our military is tax paid pinkertons for the banks and corperations that have all the assets and jobs in 3rd world slave havens,,everyone here wants cheap crap and the enviroment trashed somewhere else,,no epa,,human rights and if the natives rebel call them insurgents and get the neotards to call it a just war!! Screw china,isreal,mexico,,,bring our boys here, make it here pay a living wage and protect our borders,,,RON PAUL 2012
    Monday 31 October 2011 20:04:41
  • UncleMikeNJ

    October 31, 1941 -- a date which should live in infamy. Why didn't FDR ask for a declaration of war then? It might have been his biggest mistake, for if he had, he would have been justified, he probably would have gotten it, and certainly Pearl Harbor would have been more ready for an attack... the war could have ended sooner.
    Monday 31 October 2011 10:48:56
  • bescalanteaz

    @ tiee51ftw, I suggest you read about the man Ruben James and the reason the US Navy was founded. Terrorists have replaced the Barbary pirates but the underlying theology has escalated attacks on our country. And as for the ship, we were not even in the war when it was sunk by German subs, nor did we enter the war until Japan attacked us. And before military benefits should be cut, how about cutting congressional benefits? Read a history book.
    Thursday 27 October 2011 16:39:39
  • tlee51ftw

    We spend about 26% of our annual budget on the military. That is way too much. By some accounts, more than the next 26 countries combined. While I don't subscribe to the Tea Party pull back to our borders, we do not need all the worldwide bases we have and we do not need every new technological gadget that comes along. There is plenty of money that can be cut from the military budget and must be cut. And for you military people that are so up in arms over it, your benefits are the option.
    Wednesday 26 October 2011 16:45:15
  • LagunaWSU2

    Many years have passed, and still I wonder why... The worst of men must fight, and the best of men must die.
    Sunday 16 October 2011 02:42:12
  • cherokeetrace

    @USMarineRifleman0311 Yer right on the mark Marine. Unfortunately the U.S. Navy is being downsized while the ChiComs are developing the first blue water navy in their history in order to control the South China Sea and to threaten Taiwan. We've returned to the 70s when the Soviets practically owned the oceans, that is until Reagan came to office and restored our Navy and it's spirit.
    Tuesday 04 October 2011 19:16:49
  • USMarineRifleman0311

    @cherokeetrace the existance of this country rests upon our ability to control the seas now more than ever before 1700s. The only thing that stands in the way of the chinese being able to protect their own oil shipping lines is a good navy which they dont have at the moment. I cant understand why anyone whould even think of slandering the navy. Unless the army wants to march across the Bering strait to fight the chinese....they aint no good
    Monday 03 October 2011 15:02:05
  • USMarineRifleman0311

    @cherokeetrace the existance of this country rests upon our ability to control the seas now more than ever before 1700s. The only thing that stands in the way of the chinese being able to protect their own oil shipping lines is a good navy which they dont have at the moment. I cant understand why anyone whould even think of slandering the navy. Unless the army wants to march across the Bering strait to fight the chinese....they aint no good
    Monday 03 October 2011 15:02:03
  • FatToad12

    @pt45g46 Accordingly, they utterly failed to prepare for strategic submarine warfare. Their subchasers were bad. Their crews were worse. Their equipment was terrible, and they never had enough of any of 'em. It goes far beyond who knew where the hot water was and who didn't.
    Saturday 01 October 2011 15:30:56
  • FatToad12

    @pt45g46 I think it was less "we had thermocline charts" and more that the Japanese totally failed to anticipate the need to protect their shipping lines. They concluded that merchantmen weren't worth torpedoes - possibly an artifact of samurai thinking; fighting peasants being beneath their warrior dignity - and expected us to do the same.
    Saturday 01 October 2011 15:30:43
  • foucault1020

    @pt45g46 Thanks for the thermocline info. History seems to emphasise Purple & Magic. Code breaking would be as reliable as a rubber crutch if I'm having Japs drop depth charges on me.Using thermoclines as primitive stealth- what a concept! I never knew. Very interesting.
    Friday 16 September 2011 17:54:25
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