G.I. Joe Is Dead (formerly known as Overthrow G.I. Joe) is a formerly unidentified punk rock song by New Jersey based band The Systum. The song is about a President named "G.I. Joe", named after the toy line by the same, who is assassinated and murdered by an assassin.
Search History
The song was first posted to the New Wave Outpost forums by user Guglielm on August 23rd, 2012 along with multiple other unknown songs. He didn’t provide any information about the songs.
On April 20th, 2013, Guglielm commented on the WFMU.org page for a playlist made by user Bob Brainen, saying the songs were recorded sometime between 1981-1984 or 1991-1993 off of WFMU.
Guglielm reposted the song to WatZatSong on July 15th, 2013, not providing any additional information about it.
On August 14th, 2014, Guglielm reposted the song to WatZatSong again. He said it was tagged as System - G.I. Joe.
On March 26th, 2023, Guglielm confirmed that he digitized all of his cassette tapes with the songs on them in the early 90s, and no longer had any of them anymore.
On December 5th, 2024, a similar sounding band with the similar spells called The Systum was discovered user Rocketballboi after he found a 2012 YouTube video of the band performing. (See The Systum below about the live performance.) The band was also confirmed to have played on WFMU.
On December 7th, 2024, user Funado contacted a member of the band, and he confirmed the song was by the band and was called G.I. Joe Is Dead. The song was a live version on CBGB.
Presumed Lyrics
[Everyone knows [?????] hit em' [?????] enemy felt so strange]
[Walk over on [chain] of death to [struggle] everyday]
Who do you think's the president and who’s money is he gonna spend?
[Aside to everybody getting trouble everybody's irate]
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Overthrow
[They make the trouble when they lost the paper, lost a fight for getting chased]
[but I foiled for history, [?????] here's the [?????]]
What the hell do I think of you [I thought I was poisoned]
[though i love you [?????] sucks to] destroy you
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Overthrow
[Don't make some things so strange, it's a violent] game
[Attend your crazy fun], operation done
(one, two, three, four!)
[everyone [?????] hit em' [?????] enemy felt so strange]
[Walk over on chain of death to struggle everyday]
[Who do you think's the president and who many keeps upset]
[Aside to everybody getting in trouble everybody's irate]
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Going to overthrow G.I. Joe
Overthrow
Overthrow
Overthrow
Overthrow
G.I. Joe
He is dead!
The Systum
Not to be confused with the band The System, consisted of Mic Murphy and David Frank.
The Systum was a short-term indie rock band. The band consisted of vocalist Diamond Geary, drum player John Steel, guitarist Frankie Fender, and bass player Chaunce Hayden. Not much is known about their discography before 2000s except G. I. Joe Is Dead.
Likely, they had disbanded once and reformed the band sometime before 2012. It is also confirmed they performed their own new songs during a set at the Lion's Den Coffee House and Open Mic in Teaneck, New Jersey on January 28th 2012. They released 7 tracks at the shop:
- Alienate and Regroup
- On The Move
- Zoloft Smile
- No Cover
- Another Day Another War
- Too Late Now
- Surfin' On A Triangle
You can see those videos of them performing live there on the shop's YouTube channel TheLionsden777.
In April of 2024, Frankie Fender unfortunately passed away in a motorcycle accident.
Gallery
External Links