In the armed services, a military cadence or cadence call is a traditional call-and-response work song sung by military personnel while running or marching. In the United States, these cadences are sometimes called jody calls or jodies, after Jody, a recurring character who figures in some traditional cadences; Jody refers to the man with a whom a serviceman's wife/girlfriend cheats with, while they are deployed.
Requiring no instruments to play, they are counterparts in oral military folklore of the military march. As a sort of work song, military cadences take their rhythms from the work being done (compare sea shanty). Many cadences have a call and response structure of which one soldier initiates a line, and the remaining soldiers complete it, thus instilling teamwork and camaraderie for completion. The cadence calls move to the beat and rhythm of the normal speed (quick time) march or running-in-formation (double time) march. This serves the purpose of keeping soldiers "dressed", moving in step as a unit and in formation, while maintaining the correct beat or cadence.
The word "cadence" was applied to these work songs because of an earlier meaning, in which it meant the number of steps a marcher or runner took per minute. The cadence was set by a drummer or sergeant and discipline was extremely important, as keeping the cadence directly affected the travel speed of infantry. There were other purposes: the close-order drill was a particular cadence count for the complex sequence of loading and firing a musket. In the Revolutionary War, Baron von Steuben notably imported European battlefield techniques which persist, greatly modified, to this day.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
The Duckworth Chant (or Sound Off!)
A V-Disc issued in 1944 credits the origin of Sound Off (The Duckworth Chant) to Private Willie Duckworth, an African American soldier serving in the United States Army.
... as a company ... was returning from a long tedious march through swamps and rough country, a chant broke the stillness of the night. Upon investigation, it was found that a Negro soldier by the name of Willie Duckworth, on detached service with the Provisional Training Center, was chanting to build up the spirits of his comrades.
It was not long before the infectious rhythm was spreading throughout the ranks. Footweary soldiers started to pick up their step in cadence with the growing chorus of hearty male voices. Instead of a down trodden, fatigued company, here marched 200 soldiers with heads up, a spring to their step, and happy smiles on their faces. This transformation occurred with the beginning of the Duckworth Chant.
Upon returning to Fort Slocum, Pvt. Duckworth, with the aid of Provisional Training Center instructors, composed a series of verses and choruses to be used with the marching cadence. Since that eventful evening the Duckworth Chant has been made a part of the drill at Fort Slocum as it proved to be not only a tremendous morale factor while marching, but also coordinated the movements of close order drill with troop precision.
This original cadence was recorded as "Sound Off":
This cadence, known as the "Duckworth Chant," still exists with variations in the different branches of the U.S. military. Duckworth's simple chant was elaborated on by Army drill sergeants and their trainees, and the practice of creating elaborate marching chants spread to the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.
A musical version of the chant was recorded by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra (Voc.: Vaughn Monroe & Chorus in New York City) on March 7, 1951. It was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-4113A (in USA) and by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10086.
A variant of that cadence was used in the 1949 movie, Battleground, in the 1981 movie Taps filmed in Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania in 1980-1981. It appears in two versions in the film, both ending in the same cadence.
Marine Corps Marching Cadence Lyrics Video
Collected cadences
Some common cadences collected at the U.S. Naval Academy include:
As soon as 1952, the U.S. Army adopted The Army Goes Rolling Along as its service theme song, with the lyric "count off the cadence loud and strong" a reference to Duckworth's cadence. Its melody and lyrics derive from the traditional When the Caissons Go Rolling Along.
The United States Marine Corps and US Naval Academy use a modified version of the Old King Cole lyrics, referencing Chesty Puller: "Chesty Puller was a good Marine and a good Marine was he".
"Jody calls"
In the United States, 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 service member's girlfriend in the service member's 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." 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 U.S. Army:
One from the U.S. Marine Corps:
In the first and last scenes of the 1949 movie Battleground, the cadence sung is as follows, with the call initiated by the platoon sergeant and the response from the rest of the platoon:
Reverent
Reverent calls are an effort by personnel in armed forces to rebuild the tradition of oratory recounting of military history in the convention of cadences. The effect this instills is a greater reverence in the squad performing and for the force whose story is retold in honorable PT (Physical Training). Each branch of an armed force has its stories, and an example of the base used is the 75th Ranger Regiment (Infantry's "Airborne Ranger") in which references to WWII for example are included to complement the story.
To Hear this Cadence: "USA Airborne Rangers Cadence", Youtube.com.
Comedic
Comedic calls are often born of reverent calls but sung for comedic value using clean calls, pop-culture references, and jokes to make PT more fun and entertaining. A popular example from the film Stripes was "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "To get from the left to the right." "Stepped out of rank, got hit by a tank." "He ain't a chicken no more." Prior to women being commonplace in Army ranks, sexist comedic cadences were more prevalent.
Example:
And so on.
Controversial
Obscene, scatological, or controversial jody calls exist, and were typical, especially during and before the Vietnam War. The use of such calls is now discouraged by the US military, which instead emphasizes "clean" versions of traditional jodies. The flexibility of jodies is nearly unlimited, and old jodies have always been revived or rewritten as times and wars change.
Airborne Ranger:
My Drill Instructor
An example of one such call is the first stanza of Yellow Bird:
In the last line, the word 'little' is frequently used to replace profanity. This is an example of the minor tweaks that frequently occur in cadences depending on the particular military unit or installation they are used at. A particular cadence, when used by an infantry or other combat arms unit may include explicit profanity, while the same cadence, when used by a training or medical unit, or especially if officers are present, may be censored to a degree, as above.
The second verse to the preceding cadence:
{REPEAT}
One from the U.S. Navy:
An excerpt from the popular "When I Go to Heaven", also known as "How'd Ya Earn Your Living" or "When I Get to Heaven"
Another, more modern example of a controversial cadence popular through the US Navy:
The Marine cadence "I Went to the Market" is another vulgar cadence.
Another closely related is as followed.
The popular Cold War era jodie "On the Mountain" is also fairly controversial, especially in noncombatant outfits and among cadet groups.
The following verses are from "Napalm Sticks to Kids." One of the cadences of Vietnam, its use by the U.S. military created controversy about the theme.
The messages chanted by recruits may depict brutal treatment of civilians and the themes even suggest that troops might kill civilians gathered in public areas.
Non-military cadences
Police
Police personnel who train in para-military fashion also have acquired the tradition for its recruits in the police academy. However, the "lyrics" are changed for law enforcement, for example:
Fire academy
Fire academies in the U.S. often train in a para-military style. The following is a common cadence heard in the Fire Academy (Originally by the Marines)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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