Official studio version
If you love this land of the free
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring them home, bring them home
It will make the politicians sad, I know
Bring them home, bring them home
They wanna tangle with their foe
Bring them home, bring them home
They wanna test their grand theories
Bring them home, bring them home
With the blood of you and me
Bring them home, bring them home
Now we'll give no more brave young lives
Bring them home, bring them home
For the gleam in someone's eyes
Bring them home, bring them home
(Hoo hoo hoo hoo)
(Hoo hoo hoo hoo)
The men will cheer and the boys will shout
Bring them home, bring them home
Yeah and we will all turn out
Bring them home, bring them home
The church bells will ring with joy
Bring them home, bring them home
To welcome our darling girls and boys
Bring them home, bring them home
We will lift their voice and sound
Bring them home, bring them home
Yeah when Johnny comes marching home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring them home, bring them home
If you love this land of the free
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home
BRING 'EM HOME is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, combining Pete Seeger's BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM) with some elements from the civil war era song WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME. The song was released as a digital single in 2006. See the "Composition and Recording" section below for more details. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's official studio version of BRING 'EM HOME as released in 2006.
When Pete Seeger's 2003 album Seeds: The Songs Of Pete Seeger, Volume 3 was released, Jim Musselman sent a copy to Jon Landau and Bruce Springsteen with, as Musselman explained, "a thank you note to both of them for appearing on the first CD of the trilogy and for their support and commitment to the project over the years." Bruce Springsteen had recorded WE SHALL OVERCOME for the 1998 album Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seeger.
Bruce Springsteen first recorded BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM) with The Seeger Sessions Band on 21 Jan 2006, during the last of the three Seeger Sessions. See the live 17 Jun 2006 version (the "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" section) for more details about those studio sessions. That initial recording was based on Seeger's 2003 version of BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM), but Springsteen made some few changes. He replaced the "So now we don't want to fight for oil / Underneath some foreign soil" verse with two verses of his own, "This country belongs to you and me / We don't need no imperial presidency" and "You don't want your freedom gone / You better know which side you're on".
That original Springsteen studio version of the song was not included on the We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album. Springsteen continued to work on it, removing some verses and adding some of his own. Springsteen's version became a song of its own, titled "Bring 'Em Home".
According to the We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition album liner notes, "Pete Seeger wrote 'Bring Them Home' in 1965 as an anthem for the Vietnam anti-war movement. This version includes one new verse written by record producer Jim Musselman during the invasion of Iraq. I wrote two verses and added several from the classic Civil War song, 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home.'" The song is credited to "Pete Seeger with new verse by Jim Musselman / © 1966, 2003 Stormking Music, Inc (BMI)".
In Bruce Springsteen's BRING 'EM HOME, verse 1 is the one that record producer and Appleseed Recordings founder Jim Musselman wrote for Pete Seeger's 2003 version of BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM). Springsteen slightly changed the third line. Verse 2 can be found in Pete Seeger's original 1966 version and his 2003 rewritten version of BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM). Springsteen slightly changed the first line. Verses 3 and 4 are new verses written by Springsteen. Verses 5, 6, and 7 are written by Springsteen, based on WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME. BRING 'EM HOME's melody and structure are similar to Pete Seeger's BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM).
Biographer Dave Marsh wrote about BRING 'EM HOME: "No one sings this song without updating it. It is always there to update (and unfortunately there is almost always occasion to do so). This is the folk process as practice, not just ideology ─ a rare thing."
On 18 May 2006, while on tour in Europe, Springsteen headed to Oslo, Norway, for his show at Spektrum Arena two day later. On the day he arrived, he used a small studio in Oslo (Disclab Studios) to lay down the final lead vocal on BRING 'EM HOME, with Toby Scott at the engineering controls. The final product was revamped studio version that uses the backing track recorded with The Seeger Sessions band on 21 Jan 2006 married with the new Oslo vocal overdub that features the new lyrics that Springsteen debuted a week earlier in Paris (see the live 10 May 2006 version).
In an interview he did with Norwegian newspaper VG, Springsteen said: "We discovered this beautiful little studio down by a canal. I had written some new lyrics for 'Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)' on the way to Oslo, so I recorded some vocals there... Hopefully we'll be able to use it some time or another, maybe on a Seeger Sessions, Volume 2 sometime, who knows? But it's certainly the first recording I have done in Oslo!"
That new revamped studio version of BRING 'EM HOME ended up being released on the Springsteen's official website on 10 Jun 2006 as a free digital single. When We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition was released in October, a live version was used instead (see the live 17 Jun 2006 version).
Other versions of BRING 'EM HOME were also officially released.
In preparation for The Seeger Sessions Tour, BRING 'EM HOME is known to have been practiced during at least one of the private rehearsals that took place in September 2006 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's second European leg.
BRING 'EM HOME was performed 16 times during The Seeger Sessions Tour (56 dates, April to November 2006). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band arrangement, except twice, on 22 and 24 Jun 2006, when it was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement. The live 06 Jun 2006 version and the live 17 Jun 2006 version of BRING 'EM HOME were released on the We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition album in 2006.
BRING 'EM HOME was performed off-tour on 23 Jun 2006 at Rockefeller Center in New York City, NY, during a TV appearance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
At least one artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's BRING 'EM HOME.
List of available versions of BRING 'EM HOME on this website:
BRING 'EM HOME [Official studio version]
