Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
Original PtLaPta Material=> Original Score
Full Music by Kay Kyser=> Listen to Performance
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Vintage poster, Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition Cardinal Joseph Francis Spellman,
1889-1967. This poster was sent to a friend by Edward Sorel with a hand written note on the back
that says "Like my poster my Christmas greetings are a little late. The poem you sent Nan and I
was lovely and we hope we see you up here very soon. We have been unbelievably busy with one
thing and another and right now we are having the house painted. Best wished to you for the
new (still relatively new) Year." P.S. Spellman died the day after this came off the press.
"What I enjoy attacking," Sorel has noted, "are things that everyone else is not attacking.
Which brings me to my favorite target: organized religion." At the time of this drawing,
influential Catholic cardinal Joseph Francis Spellman, who had been military vicar general
of the United States armed forces since 1939, was a dedicated anti-Communist and outspoken hawk
on the issue of Vietnam. Spellman had urged American intervention since 1955, but by the mid-1960s,
his views were strongly criticized by American religious leaders and antiwar Catholics.
Sorel summarized those feelings in his 1967 poster Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition,
a blistering attack on the cardinal's militaristic approach. Spellman died, however, just
as the poster was finished, rendering it unsaleable, as Americans remembered what an important
spokesman he had been for the church. Sorel reused the image for the wrapper of his 1972 book,
Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy. (taken from www.npg.si.edu/exh/sorel/spell.htm) Condition:
The poster was rolled up for years, one two inch tear on bottom left,some foxing on back.
Measures 41 and one half inches long by 29 and one half inches wide. Marked 1967 Personality
Pictures Inc 74 Fifth Ave NY NY 10011 310 Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition.
Down went the gun-ner, a bul - let was his fate
Down went the gun-ner, and then the gun-ner's mate
Up jumped the sky pi-lot, gave the boys a look
And manned the gun him-self as he laid a-side TheBook, shout-ing:
"Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion!
Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion!
Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion and we'll all stay free!
Praise The Lord, and swing in-to po-si-tion,
Can't af-ford to sit a-round a'-wish-in'
Kay Kyser change (Can't af-ford to be a-politician)
Praise The Lord, we're all be-tween per-dition
and the deep blue sea!"
Yes the sky pi-lot said it You've got to give him cred-it
for a son-of-a-gun of a gun-ner was he,
Shouting: "Praise The Lord,
we're on a might - y mis-sion!
All a-board! We're not a - go - in' fish-in',
Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion
and we'll all stay free."
Words and Music by Frank
Loesser
Music by James Sanderson
1942