Released 1929 (1929) Length 3:04 | Format 10" 78rpm single Label Columbia 14545-D | |
B-side Praise God I'm Satisfied Recorded December 11, 1929; New Orleans, LA | ||
"When the War Was On" is a call and response blues song recorded in 1929 by Blind Willie Johnson and Willie B. Harris, who is thought to have been his first wife. Johnson plays bottleneck guitar, and sings throughout in his 'growl' (false bass) voice; Harris sings soprano.
The war referred to is World War I (1914–18): this is clear from the references in the lyrics to President Wilson (1913–21) and the Kaiser; the USA entered that war in 1917.
Unusually for Johnson, the song deals with a temporal rather than a spiritual subject. It shares tune and lyrics with "Everybody Help the Boys Come Home" (1927) by William and Versey Smith, husband and wife. The other side of that record by the Smiths is "When That Great Ship Went Down", which relates to the sinking of RMS Titanic. Johnson recorded his only other song on a temporal subject, "God Moves on the Water" (about the Titanic disaster), on the same day as he recorded "When the War Was On". It therefore seems likely that he knew that record.
Topical songs are usually written shortly after the events they describe. It therefore seems unlikely that either the Smiths or Johnson were the original author of this song.
As of July 2015, it seems that the song has not been recorded by any other artists.