"The Sinking of the Reuben James" | |
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Song by Almanac Singers | |
Written | 1941–1942 |
Published | 1942 |
Composer(s) | music from "Wildwood Flower" by Joseph Philbrick Webster |
Lyricist(s) | Woody Guthrie |
"The Sinking of the Reuben James" is a song by Woody Guthrie about the sinking of the U.S. convoy escort USS 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]