Youtube Of The Day – Garryowen – They Died With Their Boots On

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One of my favourite music moments in a movie isn’t in a musical but in a Western, the Errol Flynn Custer movie, They Died With Their Boots On. It is a look at how the popular Irish Rebel song, Garryowen, (named after a town in County Limerick) became the anthem of the 7th Cavalry, later to be absorbed into the 1st airborne Cavalry along with the tune. The title is often mispelt Garry Owen as if it was a man's name. The exact origins of the ballad are unknown but Beethoven wrote variations on the tune in 1811. It was also a marching tune in Napoleonic and Crimean War battles. The lyrics come in two forms. One is a bawdy drinking ballad about hard fighting, hard drinking men from Garryowen who will never go quietly when arrested or cast into jail. The other (the version used in the movie) is centred on how the heroic boys of Garryowen will always fight the good noble cause and if necessary to the death when the need arises. The film has Custer meet an Irish friend, Butler who he remembers singing the song which Custer has been haunted by ever since. He gets Butler to sing it to a bar full of soldiers who quickly join in and sing it during relaxed periods until its popularity grows. By the time the Cavalry ride off to the Indian Wars that would destroy Custer’s forces at Little Big Horn in 1876 (due to him ignoring intelligence reports and taking on a vastly superior force without waiting for reinforcements), Garryowen is their marching anthem and signature tune. Its rise in popularity through the ranks is beautifully captured here in a brilliant short montage scene. Arthur Chappell