Cultural Depictions of George Armstrong Custer - Music

Music

  • The first and probably best-known Custer pop song was "Mister Custer" ("Please Mister Custer, I don't wanna go"), a Billboard #1 novelty hit of 1960 for performer Larry Verne, in which "a voice from the rear" of the Seventh Cavalry charge asks "What'm I doing here?" and "Mind if I be excused the rest of the afternoon?" The song's words and music were by Fred Darian, Al DeLory, and Joe Van Winkle. In the UK, it was successfully covered by Charlie Drake.
  • The Kingston Trio recorded a song on their 1963 album The New Frontier titled "Some Fool Made A Soldier Of Me". The song's final verse has a trooper complaining of thirst to "General Custer", who retorts "...have no fear/There's a big river near."
  • On Johnny Cash's 1964 album Bitter Tears, the song "Custer" mocks the popular veneration of George Custer. A truncated version of the song has been covered in concert by Buffy Sainte-Marie as "Custer Song".
  • The Native American rock band Redbone recorded the song "Custer Had It Coming" in 1989.
  • General Custer's legacy was memorialized by the Italo disco group Swan in their 1986 hit "General Custer".
  • Custer is prominently featured in Johnny Horton's 1960 song "Jim Bridger": "He spoke with General Custer and said 'Listen Yellow Hair/'The Sioux are a great nation, so treat 'em fair and square/'Sit in on their war council, don't laugh away their pride'/But Custer didn't listen, and at Little Big Horn Custer died."
  • Experimental-pop group Perky Custer derived their name from General George Custer and a generic version of Dr Pepper.
  • Influential American punk/alternative band The Minutemen mocked Custer's defeat and questioned the dignity - or lack thereof - in which he died during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, on the title track of their 1981 LP The Punch Line: "I believe when they found the body of General George A. Custer/Quilled like a porcupine with Indian arrows/He didn't die with any honor, dignity, or valor/I believe when they found the body of George A. Custer/American general, patriot, and Indian fighter/That he died with shit in his pants."
  • The Arrogant Worms's song "History Is Made by Stupid People" mocks him with the line "General Custer's a national hero, for not knowing when to run."
  • On his 1996 album Cowboy Celtic, Canadian singer David Wilkie sang "Custer Died A-Runnin'".
  • A 1991 album, Blazon Stone, by the German Heavy metal band Running Wild, includes a song about Custer's final battle called "Little Big Horn". It starts with the words "Hey Mr. Custer, why did you dare the hand of fate?"
  • In the 1997 song "Banner Year", ska band Five Iron Frenzy blames the death of Black Kettle, at the Battle of Washita, on Custer. "Where Custer shot and killed Black Kettle."
  • The 1999 song Bulimic Beats by the Indie rock band Catatonia includes the line "A front line with labels where I witness custard's last stand".
  • American composer and musicologist Kyle Gann created a multimedia work titled Custer and Sitting Bull in which monologues by the two figures are recited, accompanied by a microtonal musical score and projected images from the time period. The piece premiered in Los Angeles in 1999 and played in New York to positive reviews in the year 2000.
  • The rapper Nelly mentioned Custer in his song "Heart of a Champion" from his 2004 album Sweat: "My last stance be a stance of a General Custer, I hot dog cause I can, I got the cheese and mustard."
  • Custer is one of only two Army officers to be referenced in the army song (the other is George Patton).
  • The satirical song "I Love America", in which Alice Cooper portrays a stereotypical American as naïve and ignorant (even when it comes to his own country's history), includes the lyrics "I love what the Indians did to Custer".
  • A 2004 album, Stripping Cane, by singer/songwriter Jeffrey Foucault, includes a song called "Pearl Handled Pistol". It mentions G.A. Custer and Buffalo Bill: "He was a mighty handsome man. He loved dogs and children, he loved the military band."
  • In the 2009 Dave Matthews Band song "Little Red Bird" off their bonus disc to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, Custer is mentioned in the second verse. "General Custer is sad / Overestimated his abilities to win / Sitting Bull turned the table on him / A comfort to count the battles won after the war is lost / Little red bird".

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