On 11.19.67, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featured the Smothers Brothers and George Segal singing Phil Ochs‘ “Draft Dodger Rag“.
WWII-era veterans and patriots were presumably outraged that a folk song about weaselling out of the draft was being performed on a major network in prime time.
Segal’s most recent film, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre from director Roger Corman, had opened on 6.30.67.
The first truly good film in which Segal starred, Irvin Kershner‘s Loving, wouldn’t be seen for another two and one-third years.
Cream‘s “Disreali Gears” had been released two and a half weeks before this broadcast (11.2.67).
The Chicago debut of Martin Scorsese‘s Who’s That Knocking On My Door had happened four days earlier (11.15.67) and Mike Nichols‘ The Graduate would be released roughly a month later (12.21.67).
Two days after this performance, on 11.21.67, Gen. William Westmoreland told the National Press Club in Washington, “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing…we have reached an important point…when the end begins to come into view.”
Oh, I’m just a typical American boy
From a typical American town
I believe in God and Senator Dodd
And a-keepin’ old Castro down
And when it came my time to serve
I knew, “Better dead than red”
But when I got to my old draft board, buddy
This is what I said
“Sarge, I’m only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I’ve got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat
My asthma’s getting worse”
“Yes, think of my career, my sweetheart dear
And my poor old invalid aunt
Besides, I ain’t no fool, I’m a-goin’ to school
And I’m working in a defense plant”
“I’ve got a dislocated disc and a wracked up back
I’m allergic to flowers and bugs
And when the bombshell hits, I get epileptic fits
And I’m addicted to a thousand drugs”
“I got the weakness woes, I can’t touch my toes
I can hardly reach my knees
And if the enemy came close to me
I’d probably start to sneeze”
“I’m only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I’ve got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat
My asthma’s getting worse”
“Yes, think of my career, my sweetheart dear
And my poor old invalid aunt
Besides, I ain’t no fool, I’m a-goin’ to school
And I’m working in a defense plant”
“Ooh, I hate Chou En Lai and I hope he dies
But one thing you gotta see
That someone’s gotta go over there
And that someone isn’t me”
“So I wish you well, sarge, give ’em hell
Kill me a thousand or so
And if you ever get a war without blood and gore
I’ll be the first to go”
“Yes, I’m only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I’ve got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat
My asthma’s getting worse”
“Yes, think of my career, my sweetheart dear
And my poor old invalid aunt
Besides, I ain’t no fool, I’m a-goin’ to school
And I’m working in a defense plant”
