It sounds like an exotic name, a form of wandering, or a term for many items, but this beautiful late 17th-century word pertains to an army of 10,000 men, a phrase spanning history and personal metaphor. It may also be a variant on the word myriad, which means a great many, or even an infinity of people or things, but in classical literature myriad does also refer to a military unit of ten thousand. While the noun itself is non-existent in song lyrics, there are many, if not quite 10,000 examples, of this phrase in songs.
There are, for a start many versions of the Grand Old Duke of York with his 10,000 men, the longstanding nursery rhyme:
Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
When they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.
Its origins are disputed, and may go back as far as Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), who was defeated at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, but there have been many since, including Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827) and his farcical retreat from the French to the Netherlands during the the Flanders Campaign of 1793–4. It has gradually become a song related in folklore to futile action. There are also popular Dutch and Brazilian versions.
Using that particular rhyme, perhaps the most interesting in pop music is Dive by the cult British indie band Cardiacs, from their 1988 album A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window.
Another slanted take on the theme and the phrase comes from the British postpunk quartet Toy Dolls with We Quit The Cavalry.
We fight for Queen and country and we're back here again
Over the hills to the battlefield ten thousand marching men
We never say surrender but now we must admit
Shove the rotten regiment, we're off on a moonlight flit
With a Scottish, historic angle on a famous battle and massacre - Culloden, the conclusion of the the Jacobite rising of 1745, in which around 2,000 Jacobites were killed, many pursued by the English after the battle was actually over, an infamous atrocity on British soil. Celtic folk band Clann An Drumma tell the tale:
Twenty miles a day on foot
A hard and painful slog
Wind and rain, fleet and snaw
Trudgin' through the bogs
Faur a chance tae engage
A butcher and his lord
Cut them doon one by one
And pit them tae the sword
Jacobite yae came sae faur, let them feel yir steel
A year has past since yae left
Yir hame deep in the glen
Noo yae staun a warrior
Wi' ten thousand men
Open up yir battle cry
Let yir slogan ring
Cut them doon yin by yin
Yir prince becomes a king
From Jacobites to Jack-A-Roe, also known as Jack Monroe, a traditional British folk song variously re-interpreted and performed by Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart and Joan Baez. Here’s Joan’s sweet voice telling the tale of a merchant’s daughter who dresses as a man to join a ship’s crew to find her lost sailor boyfriend.
"Before you step on board, sir,
Your name I'd like to know"
She smiled all in her countenance,
"They call me Jackaroe"
Oh, they call me Jackaroe.
"Your waist is light and slender,
Your fingers are neat and small
Your cheeks too red and rosy
To face the cannonball"
Oh, to face the cannon-ball.
"I know my waist is slender,
My fingers neat and small
But it would not make me tremble
To see ten thousand fall"
Oh, to see ten thousand fall.”
On a similar watery theme, here is US rock band Thrice, with Open Water, from their album The Alchemy Index Volumes 1 & 2 Fire and Water:
Ten thousand men sleep down with Davy Jones
With stolen treasure they tithe
The open water chills me to my bones
but it's the only place that I feel alive.
Joan Baez’s former lover Bob Dylan also has a song on the 10,000 men theme from his Under The Red Sky album. Here is a live version with that number in a variety of guises:
Ten thousand men on a hill,
Ten thousand men on a hill,
Some of 'm goin' down, some of 'm gonna get killed.
Ten thousand men dressed in oxford blue,
Ten thousand men dressed in oxford blue,
Drummin' in the morning, in the evening they'll be coming for you.
Ten thousand men on the move,
Ten thousand men on the move,
None of them doing nothin' that your mama wouldn't disapprove.
Ten thousand men digging for silver and gold,
Ten thousand men digging for silver and gold,
All clean shaven, all coming in from the cold.
Hey! Who could your lover be?
Hey! Who could your lover be?
Let me eat off his head so you can really see!
Ten thousand women all dressed in white,
Ten thousand women all dressed in white,
Standin' at my window wishing me goodnight.
Ten thousand men looking so lean and frail,
Ten thousand men looking so lean and frail,
Each one of 'em got seven wives, each one of 'em just out of jail.
Ten thousand women all sweepin' my room,
Ten thousand women all sweepin' my room,
Spilling my buttermilk, sweeping it up with a broom.
Ooh, baby, thank you for my tea!
Baby, thank you for my tea!
It's so sweet of you to be so nice to me.
American folk band of the 1960s The Limeliters performed a song about A Hundred Men going off to war but this soon escalates to ten thousand and more, here with Glenn Yarbroug:
A hundred men went off to war
... a hundred men.
Their hearts were heavy, their heads were high
As they kissed the ones they left behind.
Some were eager, some were scared,
A few now knew, a few now cared
When a hundred men went to war.
Then a thousand men went off to war
... a thousand men.
And a few now said that it wasn't right,
And a few said prayers in their beds at night
For the hearts so heavy, the heads so high
Who kissed the ones they loved goodbye,
For those so eager, and those so scared,
A few now knew, a few now cared,
When a thousand men went off to war.
... Ten thousand men.
British 80s pop duo Erasure take the theme to a more metaphorical side to express lost love in the downbeat When I Needed You from 1988’s The Innocents:
Where, where were you
When I needed you most
When I needed a friend
Where, where were you
When I needed you most
When I needed a friend
I'd like to be a soldier
A general I would be
In battle and in glory
With ten thousand men to lead
I could be most anything
There is so much to see
I'd live a different story
If you were next to me
More of a female perspective now, first with Tori Amos, from 1994’s Under The Pink, in reference to Russian history the Anastasia Romanov story, as well as the Palmer Raids, were a series of actions by the US Department of Justice intended to capture, arrest and deport leftwing radicals from the United States.
Girls, girls what have we done
What have we done to ourselves, yes
Driving on the vine
Over clothes lines
But officer I saw the sign
Thought I'd been through this in 1919
Counting the tears of ten thousand men
And gathered them all
But my feet are slipping
And finally, here’s gravelly-voiced US singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge who takes the cling-on-at-all-costs love metaphor with a big, powerful, just-you-try-and-stop-me number:
There's no dark that can overcome a flame
There's no force that can drag me away
Ah ah drag me away
Oh oh oh oh they'll never drag me away
They could bring an army
Ten thousand men or more
Their mass weapons of destruction
Won't even up the score
So then, care to pick out more examples from ten thousand, perhaps? Then please feel free to share any further ones from songs, or even film, art or other contexts in comments below.
You can also get in touch the contact page, and also visit us on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share. New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Please make any donation to help keep Song Bar running: