“Blood on the Risers” is an American paratrooper song from World War II. Sung to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the song tells of a fatal training jump of a rookie paratrooper whose parachute fails to deploy, resulting in him falling to his death. Each verse describes the man’s death and the subsequent condition of his body in the aftermath.

The song is a cautionary tale on the dangers of improper preparation of a parachute jump. The protagonist does everything right but forgets to hook up his static line which would automatically deploy his main parachute. Upon discovering this error during the jump, he deploys his reserve chute in bad falling position with disastrous results, as he becomes entangled in the parachute’s canopy and risers and falls uncontrollably to the ground below. As the reserve chute is stored in a belly bag on the World War II-era rig, deploying it in a bad falling position could easily lead to an accident, not unlike the one described in the song. “Risers” are the four straps that connect the suspension lines of the parachute canopy to the parachute harness. —from Wikipedia

Lyrics:

Blood Upon the Risers (Gory Gory What A Hell Of A Way To Die)

[Verse 1]
He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright,
He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight;
He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar,
You ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 2]
“Is everybody happy?” cried the Sergeant looking up,
Our hero feebly answered, “yes” and then they stood him up;
He jumped into the icy blast, his static line unhooked,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 3]
He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock,
He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop,
The silk from his reserves spilled out, and wrapped around his legs,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 4]
The risers swung around his neck, connectors cracked his dome,
Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones;
The canopy became his shroud; he hurtled to the ground.
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 5]
The days he’d lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind,
He thought about the girl back home, the one he’d left behind;
He thought about the medic corps, and wondered what they’d find,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 6]
The ambulance was on the spot, the jeeps were running wild,
The medics jumped and screamed with glee, they rolled their sleeves and smiled,
For it had been a week or more since last a ‘chute had failed,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 7]
He hit the ground, the sound was “SPLAT”, his blood went spurting high;
His comrades, they were heard to say “a hell of a way to die!”
He lay there, rolling ’round in the welter of his gore,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

[Verse 8]
There was blood upon the risers, there were brains upon the chute,
Intestines were a-dangling from his paratroopers suit,
He was a mess, they picked him up, and poured him from his boots,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more

[Chorus]
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Lyrics courtesy of Genius. The featured image is a photograph of a paratrooper participating in a re-enactment of a World War II parachute jump on the 40th anniversary of D-day, the invasion of Europe; this file is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.