The Sinking of the Reuben James

"The Sinking of the Reuben James"
Song by Almanac Singers
Written	1941-1942
Published	1942
Composer	(Wildwood Flower) Joseph Philbrick Webster
Lyricist	Woody Guthrie, Fred Hellerman
Language	English
Recorded by	Will Geer, The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, The Chad Mitchell Trio

“The Sinking of the Reuben James” is a song by Woody Guthrie about the sinking of the U.S. convoy escort, the 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 song is set to the melody of Wildwood Flower, an antebellum tune by Joseph Philbrick Webster. ^[2]

Recordings

• The Almanac Singers on Dear Mr. President 1942
• Will Geer on Bound for Glory 1958
• The Weavers on At Carnegie Hall, Volume 2 1960
• Johnny Horton on Johnny Horton Sings History 1960
• Oscar Brand on Every Inch a Sailor 1960
• Kingston Trio on Close-Up 1961
• The Chad Mitchell Trio on Reflecting 1963
• Jon & Alun on "Relax Your Mind" 1963
• Cisco Houston on Cisco Houston sings the songs of Woody Guthrie 1963
• James Talley on Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home 1999
• Folk Family Robinson on Songs of America (2007). Folk Family Robinson is Chris and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes and their father Stan Robinson.
• Country Joe McDonald on Thinking of Woody Guthrie 1969

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.

External links

• "‘The Sinking Of The Reuben James’ lyrics". Official Woody Guthrie website.