IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE PRIVATES ARE

If you want to know where the privates are,
I'll tell you where they are,
I'll tell you where they are,
Yes, I'll tell you where they are.
If you want to know where the privates are—
I'll tell you where they are,
Up to their ears in mud.
I saw them, I saw them— Up to their ears in mud and slime.
If you want to know where the privates are,
I'll tell where they are—
Up to their ears in mud.

If you want to know where the sergeants are,
Etc., etc.,
Clipping the old barbed wire.

If you want to know where the captains are,
Etc., etc.,
Drinking the privates' rum.

If you want to know where the officers are,
Etc., etc.,
Down in their deep dug-out.

If you want to know where the generals are,
Etc., etc.,
Back in gay Paree.


from John A. Lomax & Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934), pages 554-556

reprinted from Songs My Mother Never Taught Me (by Niles, Moore, and Wallgren, 1929)

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index information about Niles/Moore: Niles/Moore -- John J. "Jack" Niles and Douglas S. "Doug" Moore (with cartoons by A. A. "Wally" Wallgren), Songs My Mother Never Taught Me (1929).

So....Sandburg, Lomax, and Niles/Moore are all more-or-less the same.