Military cadence


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 whom a serviceman's wife/girlfriend cheats while he is 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. 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 march or running-in-formation 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.

"The Duckworth Chant" (or "Sound Off!")

A V-Disc issued in 1944 credits the origin of "Sound Off" to Private Willie Lee Duckworth of Sandersville, Georgia, an African American soldier serving in the United States Army.
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 on March 7, 1951. It was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-4113A 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 and in the 1981 movie Taps, filmed at Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It appears in two versions in the film, both ending in the same cadence.

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 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 while the soldier is in boot camp or in country.
An R-&-B example of the folkloric Jody character is the 1970 hit single from Johnny Taylor, "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone". Another is the poem "Black Soldier" by the Last Poets on their 1972 album Chastisement.
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 ____" with Joe then identified by occupation. He was a stock villain 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, some are tolerated and even encouraged by leadership, while others are subversive.
Common themes in jodies include:
Lineberry offers an alternative, psychologically and functionally oriented taxonomy. There are negative themes but also positive and perhaps in-between, expressions of contempt for death and indifference to mortality.
One example used in the U.S. Army:
Some 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:

You had a good home but you left / You're right
You had a good home but you left / You're right
Jody was there when you left / You're right
Your baby was there when you left / You're right
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4
Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2... 3,4!


They signed you up for the length of the war /
The best you'll get in a biv-ou-ac /
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4
Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2... 3,4!


There ain't no use in going back /
Jody's got somethin' you ain't got /
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4
Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2... 3,4!
Your baby was lonely, as lonely could be /
Ain't it great to have a pal /
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4
Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2... 3,4!


You ain't got nothin' to worry about /
An' you won't get home til the end of the war /
Sound off! / 1,2
Sound off! / 3,4
Cadence count! / 1,2,3,4,1,2... 3,4!

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. Each branch of an armed force has its stories, and an example of the base used is the 75th Ranger Regiment in which references to WWII for example are included to complement the story.

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.
Birdy, Birdy in the sky
Dropped a whitewash in my eyes
I'm no wimp, I don't cry
I'm just glad that cows don't fly
Superman was the man of steel,
but he aint no match for a Navy Seal.
Chief and Supe got in a fight;
Chief hit Supe with kryptonite.
Supe fell to his knees in pain.
Now Chief's dating Lois Lane
Well Chief and Batman had one too,
Chief hit him in the head with his shoe.
Hit him in the temple with his left heel,
Now Chief's driving the Batmobile.

Controversial

, 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:
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

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