Does the Republican party have a song? If not, I would like to suggest "John Browns Body"
"John Brown's Body" is over 130 years old. After Julia Ward Howe heard Union troops singing the original version of the song while they marched, she wrote her own words to it's tune. Soon after, her version was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
I did a recording of the song last year because I fell in love with it after hearing about it on a PBS special.
I think it speaks not only for the beginning of the Republican party but also to how we still believe in freedom for all.
Here are the words to the song:
Old John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage, whom he ventured out to save;
But though he lost his life in his struggling to free the slaves,
His truth is marching on.
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
But his soul is marching on!
John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave;
Kansas knew his valor when he fought her rights to save;
And now though the grass grows green above his grave,
His truth still marches on.
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-molding in the grave
But his truth still marches on!
He captured Harpers Ferry with his nineteen men so few,
And he frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled through and through,
They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew,
But his truth still marches on.
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
And his truth still marches on.
John Brown was John the Baptist for the Christ we are to see,
Christ who of the bondsman shall the Liberator be;
And soon throughout the sunny South the slaves were all set free.
And his truth went marching on.
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
His truth went marching on.
The conflict that he heralded, he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag, red, white, and blue,
And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deeds they mean to do,
For his truth still marches on.
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
His truth still marches on
Oh, soldiers of freedom, then strike while strike you may
The deathblow of oppression for a better time and way;
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened us day,
And his truth is marching on.
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
His truth still marches on
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord
And his Truth still marches on.
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
Glory Glory Halleluya
His truth still marches on
I'm sure someone else could do a better job of singing it then I did, being as it was just me and my guitar. But you can get an idea of how the song goes by checking out my version if you'd like. I have it here: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/gloriajanemusic.htm
Just scroll down to the eleventh song down the page.
Anyone ever seen the tape of the 1964 Republican Convention with the long intro before Goldwater spoke?
Great rendition of "Battle Hymn".
Last year during Reagan's funeral when the casket was being brought to the Capitol rotunda, "Battle Hymn" played along with the cannon's going off -- dammit that's what I call moving.