Draft Dodger Rag

"Draft Dodger Rag" is a satirical anti-war song by Phil Ochs, a U.S. protest singer from the 1960s known for being a harsh critic of the American military industrial complex. Originally released on his 1965 album, I Ain't Marching Anymore, "Draft Dodger Rag" quickly became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement.^[1]

Ochs wrote "Draft Dodger Rag" as American involvement in the Vietnam War was beginning to grow.^[2] The song is sung from the perspective of a gung-ho young man who has been drafted. When he reports for duty, however, the young man recites a list of reasons why he can't serve, including poor vision, flat feet, a ruptured spleen, allergies and asthma, back pain, addiction to multiple drugs, his college enrollment, his disabled aunt, and the fact that he carries a purse.^[2][3] (One historian of the draft resistance movement wrote that Ochs "described nearly every available escape from conscription".^[3]) As the song ends, the young man tells the sergeant that he'll be the first to volunteer for "a war without blood or gore".^[2][4]

"Draft Dodger Rag" was the first prominent satirical song about the draft during the Vietnam War.^[5] One writer says its humor can be appreciated on its own level, without respect to the political message of the song.^[6] Another says it added "much-needed humour" to the protest song genre.^[7]

Ochs wrote of the song:

In Vietnam, a 19-year-old Vietcong soldier screams that Americans should leave his country as he is shot by a government firing squad. His American counterpart meanwhile is staying up nights thinking up ways to deceptively destroy his health, mind, or virility to escape two years in a relatively comfortable army. Free enterprise strikes again.^[8]

Ochs performed "Draft Dodger Rag" in 1965 on a CBS Evening News television special Avoiding the Draft, one of the rare instances in which he appeared on a national American television broadcast.^[9][10]

The Smothers Brothers[edit]

On November 19, 1967, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featured the Smothers Brothers and actor George Segal singing "Draft Dodger Rag". Dick Smothers introduced the song by saying it was about a "great effort" some young American men were making. Tom Smothers added that the song was about a problem and how it was being solved with "good old American ingenuity". They ended the song by proclaiming "Make love, not war!"^[11]

Cover versions[edit]

Several performers beside the Smothers Brothers have covered "Draft Dodger Rag", including the Chad Mitchell Trio, The Four Preps, Kind of Like Spitting, Tom Paxton, David Rovics, and Pete Seeger.^[12] Seeger's version was released as a single.^[13]

See also[edit]

• Draft dodger
• List of anti-war songs

References[edit]