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Can't Hear the Music?

Words and Music by Paul Roberts and Shelby Darnell, ©1942 by MCA Music, A division of MCA, Inc. This song was written during World War II (1939 to 1945) and remains one of the most popular songs about the war. It primarily portrays this young man's patriotic spirit and his desire to help create or preserve a free world. Lyrics are as reprinted in Dorothy Horstman, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, New York, NY, 1976.

There's a Star-Spangled Banner waving somewhere In a distant land so many miles away. Only Uncle Sam's great heroes get to go there Where I wish that I could also live some day. I'd see Lincoln, Custer, Washington and Perry, And Nathan Hale and Colin Kelly, too. There's a Star-Spangled Banner waving somewhere, Waving o'er the land of heroes brave and true. In this war with its mad schemes of destruction Of our country fair and our sweet liberty, By the mad dictators, leaders of corruption, Can't the U. S. use a mountain boy like me? God gave me the right to be a free American, And for that precious right I'd gladly die. There's a Star-Spangled Banner waving somewhere, That is where I want to live when I die.

UCLA campus, Sept. 13, 2001, Westwood section of Los Angeles. Photo by Rene Macura (AP)

Though I realize I'm crippled, that is true, sir,
Please don't judge my courage by my twisted leg.
Let me show my Uncle Sam what I can do, sir,
Let me help to bring the Axis down a peg.
If I do some great deed I will be a hero,
And a hero brave is what I want to be.
There's a Star-Spangled Banner waving somewhere,
In that heaven there should be a place for me.

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