Title: Jodie

Informant info: Informant requested to remain anonymous. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was a member of the Army Infantry 10^th Mountain Division of Fort Drum, New York. Informant served in Iraq from 2006 to 2007. Informant is 28 years old.

Type of lore: Customary/ Verbal, Tradition, Song

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about any songs that they sung during their time in boot camp or while serving abroad. Informant spent childhood in the Northeastern United States and feels a lot of hostility toward the Midwestern United States. Informant mentioned that they sing lots of songs revolving around a character named Jodie. This character represented the guy that comes into your social and family contexts while a soldier is deployed and takes your girlfriend or has sex with your mother.

Associated file: Informant requested to remain completely anonymous.

Transcript:

[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Uhh there are a lot of songs. A lot of them will refer to this Jodie. Jodie is like this name, I don’t know why its called Jodie so don’t ask… Uhh Jodie’s like the name of the person that’s in Dear John letters you know, um Jodie’s the guy that comes and steals your girlfriend or fucks your wife or your mom or or whatever. Uh there’s lots of songs about Jodie while we are marching or running and what not. I don’t know why that’s the device chosen to motivate so many soldiers but it’s a high testosterone environment and its also a very simple environment, mostly because of all the dumb southern farmers and Midwesterners that can really relate to shooting the guy that’s fucking your wife. Shot guns and heartbreak and trucks and dogs and tobacco and whiskey sort of thing. But yeah those songs

Informant’s comments: Informant mentioned that the figure of Jodie is taken very seriously and that are a number of songs that involve his character. Informant suggested that I search the internet for some examples and mentioned that “chances are they were sung during my time in the military.” Informant also mentioned that they don’t understand why this motivates soldiers but attests that it does.

Collector’s comments: After informant sang a previous song, they became more serious and talked about a character in many songs named Jodie. The overall attitude was contrasted greatly as frustration and a lower tone of voice.