"Jody Calls"
In the US, what are now known as cadences were called jody calls or jody (also jodie) from a recurring character, a civilian named "Jody", whose luxurious lifestyle is contrasted with military deprivations in a number of traditional calls. The mythical Jody refers to a civilian who remains at home instead of joining the military service. Jody is often presumed to be medically unfit for service, a 4F in WWII parlance. Jody also lacks the desirable attributes of military men. He is neither brave nor squared-away. Jody calls often make points with ironic humor. Jody will take advantage of a servicemember's girlfriend in their absence. Jody stays at home, drives the soldier's car, and gets the soldier's sweetheart (often called "Susie") while the soldier is in boot camp or in country.
The name derives from a stock character in African-American oral traditions, "Joe the Grinder," who is also prominent in Merle Haggard's song "The Old Man of the Mountain." The character's name has been transcribed as "Joady," "Jody," "Jodie," "Joe D.", or even "Joe the ____" (in dialect, "Joe de ____") with Joe then identified by occupation. He was a stock anti-hero who maliciously took advantage of another man's absence. Enlisted African-American soldiers incorporated this character into cadence songs during the Second World War.
Lineberry emphasizes conflicting uses of the calls: they are useful to command, in that they serve as instruments to psychologically detach the soldier from home-life, and to inculcate a useful degree of aggression. They are useful to the soldier, who can vent dissatisfaction without taking individual responsibility for the expression. While jodies, strictly speaking, are folklore (they are not taught institutionally, and do not appear, for example, in FM 3-21.5, Drill and Ceremonies Field Manual), some are tolerated and even encouraged by leadership, while others are subversive.
Common themes in jodies include:
- Homesickness.
- Everyday complaints about military life.
- Boasts (of one's own unit) and insults (of one's competitor, which may be another unit, another service branch, or the enemy.)
- Humorous and topical references.
Lineberry offers an alternative, psychologically and functionally oriented taxonomy. There are negative themes (disrespect expressed for deities, women, homosexuals, the enemy and economically deprived comrades; graphic expression of violence perpetrated on women and the enemy, glorification of substance abuse) but also positive (unit pride, encouragement of comrades) and perhaps in-between, expressions of contempt for death and indifference to mortality.
One example used in the US Army:
- My honey heard me comin' on my left right on left
- I saw Jody runnin' on his left right on left
- I chased after Jody and I ran him down
- Poor ol' boy doesn't feel good now
- M.P.s came a runnin on their left right on left
- The medics came a runnin on their left right on left
- He felt a little better with a few I.V.s
- Son I told you not to mess with them ELEVEN Bs (the designation for infantry in the Army)
One from the US Marine Corps:
- Jody, Jody six feet four
- Jody never had his ass kicked before.
- I'm gonna take a three-day pass
- And really slap a beating on Jody's ass!
At the end of the 1949 movie Battleground, the cadence sung is as follows, with the call initiated by the drill sergeant and the response from the rest of the platoon:
You had a good home but you left / You're right
Sound off! / 3,4 Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2...3,4!
Sound off! / 3,4 Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2...3,4! |
Your baby was lonely, as lonely could be /
Ain't it great to have a pal /
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4 Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2...3,4! |
Read more about this topic: Military Cadence
Famous quotes containing the word calls:
“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take us as long to recall a space of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking. All recollected times undergo, accordingly, what M. Ribot calls foreshortening; and this foreshortening is due to the omission of an enormous number of facts which filled them.”
—William James (18421910)