Garry Owen!

LISTEN TO GARRY OWEN!

  congratulations to Mike!

Garry Owen was the unofficial marching song of the Seventh Cavalry. Gen. Custer reportedly heard the song among his Irish troop and liked it. The tune was then played so often the 7th became tied to it.

The tune is first documented as Auld Bessy in 1788. It was later (1800) in the opera Harlequin Amulet (the Majic of Mona). About that time it was attributed to "Jackson of Cork" by a book of Country Dances by William Campbell. It also appeared in part two (1802) of Nathaniel Gow's four volume Complete Repository of the Original Scotch Slow Tunes.

Garry Owen has become the official 7th cavalry song, as well as the 1st cavalry division. "Garry Owen!" is also a battlecry.


 

LISTEN TO GARRYOWEN

7th cavalry lyrics

We are the pride of the army,
And a regiment of great renown,
Our name's on the pages of history,
From sixty-six on down.
If you think we stop or falter
While in the fray we're gin'
Just watch the steps with our heads erect,
While our band plays "Garryowen." 
 
Chorus
In the Fighting Seventh's the place for me
It's the cream of all the cavalry;
No other regiment ever can claim
Its pride, honor, glory and undying fame.

Original lyrics

Chorus
Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run
We are the boys no man dares dun
If he regards a whole skin.

Chorus

Our hearts so stout have got no fame
For soon 'tis known from whence we came
Where'er we go they fear the name
Of Garryowen in glory.
Chorus 

We know no fear when stern duty
Calls us far away from home,
Our country's flag shall safely o'er us wave,
No matter where we roam.
'Tis the gallant Seventh Cavalry
It matters not where we're goin'
Such you'll surely say as we march away;
And our band plays, "Garryowen." 
  

Chorus
Then hurrah for our brave commanders!
Who lead us into the fight.
We'll do or die in our country's cause,
And battle for the right.
And when the war is o'er,
And to our home we're goin'
Just watch the step, with our heads erect,
When our band plays, "Garryowen."

7th cavalry camp, South Korea, 2004