Mr. Custer

The lyrics present a frightened soldier who repeatedly asks Mr. Custer not to make him join the march into battle. The other men appear confident, but the speaker expects danger and imagines being wounded. As the scene continues, his fear comes through both in his pleas and in his nervous jokes. The final remark, “this ain’t no time for jokin’,” suggests that the danger has become harder to laugh off.

Several expressions make his fear vivid. “An arrow in my back” comes from his dream of the coming fight and pictures him being hurt before he can defend himself. “Take my hair” is a comic way of referring to the threat of being scalped, while “wind up dead or bald” turns two frightening possibilities into a blunt, joking complaint. His attempt to call out “kemo sabe” as a word for “friend” is another nervous effort to avoid danger by making contact.

The song uses exaggerated humor, including dated and offensive terms for Native Americans. That language reflects the speaker’s limited, fearful perspective in the lyrics; it should not be treated as a neutral description of Native people. The comedy may make the soldier seem cowardly, but it can also make his fear feel understandable: he sees little reason to risk his life for a battle he does not want to fight.