I'm With Judah Maccabee [Hanukkah Soldiers]

Obscure Jewish Bluesman Howlin' Wasserstrom has returned after a typically long period of apparent inactivity with another entry in the exceptionally thin canon of Jewish Holiday blues songs. This time, Howlin' has adapted an old traditional gospel song "Soldiers" by shifting the lyrics' focus to Hanukkah. Since the Maccabees were soldiers, and gospel started as essentially blues songs with religious lyrics, it's not much a stretch . Willfree (guitar) and Vashti Holliday (vocals) have inexplicably returned to help, despite the fact that they've heard Howlin' sing before and know the consequences. Either they figure their own musical reputations can survive this guilt by association, or they have just given up completely. Really, it's not fair to blame them.

Anyway, Happy Hanukkah everybody! In anticipation of the usual complaints about the impossibility of understanding what the heck Howlin' is saying/howlin'/mumbling or garbling (perhaps even gargling?), here's the words:

I'm With Judah Maccabee (Hanukkah Soldiers)

Well the Jews were living under foreign occupation
The rulers wouldn't tolerate no separation
They wanted one religion and it wasn't ours
Stop reading that Torah and blowing shofars
I'm going to holler about the Maccabees in this mic
You can call their book apocryphal if you like

CHORUS:
I'm a soldier
[Response] I'm with Judah Maccabee
I'm a soldier
[Response] You can't take my dignity
I'm a soldier
[Response] I'm with Judah Maccabee
I'm a soldier
[Response] You can't take my dignity

We weren't looking for trouble, just to do what we do
They said you gotta live like us or you'll die a Jew
They even sent their goons in to make us eat pork
Man, it ain't none of your business
What I put on my fork
It was clear as day, ain't no doubt
One way or the other, they want to wipe us out

CHORUS

They thought we were soft, just a nation of priests
And that we'd roll with the punches
At their pagan feasts
Then they'd get rough with us, because if that works
We'd forget about Moses and follow those jerks
Antiochus let me tell you, we know wrong from right
If you mess with our religion, we know how to fight.

CHORUS

We fought them tooth and nail, sword and knife
We were fighting for survival and our way of life
The battles were fierce
But you know what won the war?
When the other soldiers started asking: "Hey, what are WE fighting for?"

CHORUS

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hanukkah
• Chanukkah
• Hanukkah music
• Chanukkah music
• Jewish Holiday music
• Harmonica holiday music
• Howlin' Wasserstrom
• Chicago Blues
• Hanukkah Blues Music
• Hanukah Blues Music
• chanukah Blues Music
• Chanukkah blues
• harp