Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,blue cat in victoria, bc Date: 20 Mar 23 - 03:22 AM I learned this in grade 9 drill team in Texas. It goes like this: I left my wife with 42 kids at home in the kitchen in starving conditions and nothing but gingerbread left, left, left, right, left. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Guest: Susie in Nebraska Date: 16 Nov 22 - 05:18 PM My Great Aunt born in 1898 taught me this while we walked to the store. Left my wife and 48 children in starving condition without any gingerbread. Did I do right? Right? Right with the World I had a good job but I left, left. I think there was more but that's all I can remember.....from 1960. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Linda McAlister Date: 14 May 22 - 05:52 PM My memory from girl scout camp many years ago: Left, left, left, right, left. I left my wife and 48 kids and an old gray mare and a peanut stand. Did I do right, right, right from the country where I came from. Right foot, left foot, switch be-jingle (shifting feet) Left, left, left, right, left |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 27 Aug 21 - 03:12 PM Left my home and 44 children just because I thought it was right, right, Right to the country, yes by jingo, now we switch to the (pause) left, left Left my home... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch Date: 31 Jul 21 - 12:06 PM It's all celeusma. The show ain't over until the big girl sings, and what does she sing? Ho yo to ho... a cadence! An "aire" was once a route march pace. Work song chorus sounds... constipated. Never thought about it that way but, same latin root as stevedore. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Stephen Lewis Date: 31 Jul 21 - 12:49 AM Left, left, left, right, left, Left my wife and 48 kids in a starving position, Without any gingerbread. Did I do right, right, right for my country Who needed me most to guard the gates Of Humphrey Dingledorf? Left, left, left, right, left ... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Lighter Date: 30 May 20 - 07:51 PM Long, long ago I visited the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. A "demonstration of chantey singing" was presented aboard the full-rigged "Joseph Conrad." A bunch of us lubbers manned the capstan and someone called for "Blow the Man Down." Stan Hugill was chanteyman. Just before (or maybe after) he sang, some befuddled know-it-all said to him, "But isn't that a halliard chantey?" Stan frowned and said, "Usually. But they'd sing whatever they wanted." Anyway, we ran round the capstan singing the choruses largely off-key. After a while, the "mate" of the "Conrad" shouted, "'Vast heaving!" Stan shut up in the middle of a stanza, and his crew ambled away to do other things. I suggest that this was an unusually authentic chanteying event. To judge from the quality of the choruses, some of the "crew" may even have been hung over. It struck me as decidedly "not a musical experience," a far cry from even the most "authentic-sounding" (sic) folkie performance. It was mainly guys (and a couple of gals) exerting themselves in unison and singing because that's what people did on that kind on that kind of job. And did I mention that some of us wore big grins because it was a *privilege* and *fun* to heave the capstan round ? |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Charmion Date: 30 May 20 - 05:27 PM Probably, Lighter. I know about doubling alright, but not so much halyard-hauling. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Lighter Date: 30 May 20 - 10:35 AM > It is not a musical experience. In other words,a bit like hearing chanteys sung on sailing vessels by heaving or hauling sailors. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Charmion Date: 30 May 20 - 10:13 AM Guest, Observer, did you serve in the British Army? In the Canadian Forces, troops on the march will sing when they have a long way to go. In early summer, contingents training for the Nijmegen Marches can be heard in the riverside parklands of Ottawa, their boots thudding and their tuneless voices intoning "A yellow bird / With a yellow bill / Sat upon / My window sill ... " Recruits and soldiers in battle school are often ordered to sing while doubling, the better to improve their cardiopulmonary capacity. It is not a musical experience. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 29 May 20 - 11:06 AM I left my wife with 24 kids and a belly full of bean soup I left, left, left right left. I left, left, left right left. Repeat. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Blackmer Date: 29 May 20 - 10:55 AM Learn from my father who was in the Merchant Marines I left my wife with 24 kids and a belly of of bean soup I left, left, left right left. I left, left, left right left. Repeat. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Observer Date: 04 Oct 19 - 03:24 AM This would appear to be a peculiarly US Forces thing, as I recall we were taught to march and drill purely to the sound of the command with total silence in the ranks. GUEST, Date: 15 Aug 10 - 10:27 AM's contribution sounds more like a "Sods Opera" dit than anything Royal Marines would be allowed to use in either training or in service. Just as a point of clarification for said GUEST - There are no British Army Royal Marine Commandos as the Royal Marines are part, and always have been part of the Royal Navy. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,gatyam gal Date: 04 Oct 19 - 01:40 AM I am digging up songs from my past. I am finding so many people remember songs differently. This is how WE sang it. Left, Left, Left, Right, Left I left my home and 42 kids on the verge of starvation Without any gingerbread. Did I do Right? Right! Right by my country and flag. (repeat) |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,jo Date: 03 Feb 19 - 04:39 PM What I remember from childhood is... Right, right, Right my son by jingo I had a good job which I left, left, Left my wife with 42 children without any gingerbread, think I did right, right, Right my son... I'm fascinated by how many variants there are of this. I wonder why... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Roland Date: 28 Jan 18 - 05:36 AM Left, left, I left my wife and 42 kids, Hay foot straw foot, belly full of bean soup, Johnny get your clothes on, Left, Left ... That's what my little cousin sang to me. He was a B17 flying fortress pilot, based in England in 1944. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 11 Nov 17 - 10:19 PM LEFT LEFT LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT LEFT LEFT I LEFT my wife and forty-one children home in the kitchen in starving condition without any gingerbread LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT LEFT |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,jacullman Date: 31 Oct 17 - 01:58 AM My dad was in the Americal Division at Guadalcanal. He used to chant this: Left, Left, Left, Right, Left I left my wife and 48 children at home in the kitchen in starving condition without any gingerbread Left, Left, Left, Right, Left I left my wife and 48 children at home in the kitchen in starving condition without any gingerbread repeat I wish I could recall some with the dirty lyrics -- only heard then a couple of times when dad thought I wasn't listening. I blame my much older sister, who was in first grade and got in trouble for chanting the following ditty while waiting for the school bus. "Roll me over in the clover, roll me over in the clover and do it again." |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Guest- Ruth Date: 03 Apr 17 - 10:16 PM Left,left left my wife with 48 kids in a starving condition without any gingerbread thought I did right,right Right to my country,by jingles, I had a good job and I left, left. Repeat |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,pam Date: 06 Aug 16 - 09:53 PM there are so many versions of this! left. left. i left my wife and 48 kids on the verge of starvation without any gingerbread, did i do right, right? as kids, we marched side by side down the street with all left legs starting first followed by our right legs, singing this verse together. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Ct Date: 29 Nov 15 - 10:57 AM I wanted to get this girl scout variant on the list: LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT LEFT I LEFT my husband and 42 children alone and abandoned without any gingerbread, Did I do RIGHT? RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Cindie Date: 07 Nov 15 - 01:00 PM Here's what I learned from my mom: Left, left, I left my wife with 42 kids With nothing to eat the in the house but gingerbread Left, right, right Right from the haystack, hay foot-straw foot, oompijingle* Left, left, etc. *When you say this word, you do a funny skip/hop so you end up on the right foot. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Asterix Date: 08 Oct 15 - 05:08 PM This is what I was taught as a kid: Left, left, left my wife and 49 kids and a bucket of beans in New Orleans thinkin'-I-was ( Right, right, right by my country by jingo I had a good home but I Left ... etc. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 04 Oct 15 - 07:22 PM all I remember of this song my mother taught me, and I just cant remember the rest is Left, left, left my wife and 24 children a peanut stand and an ole grey mare and did I do right, right, right from the country that I came from ..... hay ? scotch something scotch, pick a bale o' cotton......? she is no longer around to ask! sorry, Does that help at all? |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 01 Jun 15 - 04:49 PM Left, Left, left right left, I LEFT my wife and 42 kids in a starving condition without any gingerbread LEFT left, left right left ect. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Laura Date: 22 May 15 - 11:39 PM Left Left Left my wife with 48 kids without any gingerbread you think I was right right right to my country by jingle by george I had a good job and I left left left...........that all I remember from growing up on Fort Rucker Alabama back in the 70's. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Rahere Date: 10 Dec 14 - 07:13 AM Noisy bastards! Some of us learned silence is golden - because we can hear you lot coming a hundred miles away, and that gives us plenty of time to prepare the welcome party... As a drill or route march practice, this chanting harms the sense of listening to what your platoon is doing. That sense is essential in combat, because that tuning keeps you clued up to them. As far as the slow march is concerned, the technique us Brits used to use is to teach it as a step and a stop. You place your front foot and bring the other up to it, outside of the foot going down first, change balance, step with the other and bring the first up to it, change balance... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Rapparee Date: 09 Dec 14 - 09:41 PM We did several cadences at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO back in 1963. I was in Charlie (C) Company, Second Battalion, Second Training Regiment (Basic) or C-2-2. One went like this: SGT: Count cadence delayed cadence count cadence count! (left footfall on the first word) PLT: ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! (left footfall on each word) ONE TWO THREE FOUR (a footfall on each word, with the left foot being the odd numbers) CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE TWO TWO!! (left foot on first and second Charlie, left-right-left on the last phrase). One of the most difficult things was to keep step during the "march past" after JFK's assassination was announced to us. When you are used to 120 steps per minute going to half that makes you stumble around -- especially when no one had ever done that before. Trying to tote an M-1 rifle at reverse arms at the same time made it bloody difficult and even the band couldn't help. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Laura Date: 08 Dec 14 - 09:52 PM I learned it from my Grandmother as... Left, left, left my wife and 49 kids and old grey mare and a peanut stand.(march) I do right, right, right by the Country I do stand.(march) Hay foot - straw foot - shift by jingle foot.(shift feet - kinda jump) I'm dying to know - does anyone know the origin? |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,stacey Date: 06 Oct 14 - 02:34 PM I left my wife and 44 kids in a starving condition with nothing but Johnny bread think I did right, Right, right by my country by golly I had a good job and I left, left, left....(repeat from the top) |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Desert Dancer Date: 17 Jun 14 - 12:20 PM Yeah, looks like it needs a DT Corrections/Updates post. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Lighter Date: 17 Jun 14 - 08:15 AM Just as a point of information, there's never been a "Fort Duckworth." |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Desert Dancer Date: 17 Jun 14 - 12:39 AM SOUND OFF (CADENCE COUNT) (DUCKWORTH CHANT) in the DT has the "Duckworth" name originating from Ft. Duckworth: In WWII, black troops were, apparently, given more freedom However, others above and elsewhere cite Pvt. Willie Duckworth. (The Missouri Folklore Society has this page about it (discussed in the Folklore: jodies thread here.) Today on NPR's All Things Considered they had an article, "Sound Off: Where The Military's Rhythm Came From by Frannie Kelley A YouTube video of the story, posted by Michael Cavenaugh July 2013 is linked: Duckworth Chant Ft Slocum 1945 VDisc TSgt Felice Intro & Ma.... It's got a relatively long text summary (that I can't copy), but it does say that Col. Bernard Lentz copyrighted the Duckworth chant, and the royalties are split to this day between the Lentz and Duckworth families. ~ Becky in Long Beach |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: Lighter Date: 01 Apr 14 - 10:57 AM I once spent a couple of years reading many, many American memoirs of World War I, both books and magazine articles. There were plenty of references to drill sergeants chanting "hup, two, three, four" (and phonetic variants), and to troops singing both polite and bawdy songs on the march, but not one example of the modern "Sound off!" That routine, however, was certainly popular in World War II, possibly only after the 1944 appearance at Ft. Slocum, N.Y., of Pvt. Willie Duckworth's "Duckworth Chant," in which the syncopated sound-off countdown figures prominently. A 1945 recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6bhv4i8qso The 1952 movie "What Price Glory" has World War I marines doing something similar. But they *don't* do it in the 1924 Broadway play that the movie's based on. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,shayes Date: 01 Apr 14 - 12:40 AM I learned it like this: Left, left, I left my wife and 48 kids in a house all alone with nothing but gingerbread; Did I do right, right, right by my country, by jingo, I had a good job, but I left, left (and back to beginning) |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: JohnInKansas Date: 14 Mar 14 - 02:17 AM In recent (100 years?) usage in the US Army, the name used for this routine is "Sound Off." About the only thing "standardized" is effectively a "chorus:" Drill Master: SOUND OFF Troop: ONE TWO DM: SOUND OFF Troop: THREE FOUR DM: CADENCE COUNT Troop: ONE TWO THREE FOUR, Troop: ONE TWO (one-step pause) THREE-FOUR (Some may omit the "skip-step" in the last line, and do the count in regular left-right-left-right sync.) Although there are many common "verses" a majority of them are (claimed as) unique to a particular squad, company, or post (or sometimes a local barroom). Quite probably more than half of the better known ones are blatantly OBSCENE, RUDE, AND OFFENSIVE (intentionally). This CADENCE (it's proper name, it's not a song here) is most generally used on military installations only during the first week of a "boot camp" since it seldom takes the CO's wife more than a week to complain about the obscene shouting and the CO orders the troops to "don't do that anymore" (at least stateside). Occasionally the order will be "don't do that while in the housing area," and one was known to have said "where my wife can hear it." ARMY lore claims that the AIR FARCE uses "Little Willies" as their usual CADENCE verses, often retaining the "Sound Off" call and response as chorus, since they're "just too nice." This rumor is unconfirmed by my experience. (They may not need marching cadences much, since they usually get a bus to take them to and from where they keep their toys?) Scouting and other "pickups" on the CADENCE are likely to be badly corrupted, but are mostly harmless and sometimes good for a giggle. John |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 13 Mar 14 - 10:31 AM Sin, sin, sin dex sin... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 12 Mar 14 - 07:50 PM I left my wife with 46 children, the old gray mare and the peanut stand. Did I do right, right? Right from the country where I came from, Hakeem, jakem, shift my nakem. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,jlf Date: 28 Jun 13 - 09:55 PM Left. Left. Left my wife and forty-nine children in starving condition without any gingerbread. Did I do right, right, right by jingo by jove, I had a good job but I left, left (ad nauseum) |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Military Brat Date: 09 Apr 13 - 04:36 PM LEFT, LEFT, LEFT my wife and 49 kids on the verge of starvation without any gingerbread Did I do RIGHT, RIGHT, write (RIGHT) to my country, write (RIGHT) to my country, tell them how sorry I am that I LEFT, LEFT, LEFT my wife and 48 kids, etc. (repeat, counting down as you go) |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Scotty Date: 10 Feb 13 - 02:06 AM learned from my grandmother (b. 1908, Virginia) Left my wife and 46 children, Old gray mare by peanut stand Went to town and there I found that I was right, right Hayfoot, strawfoot, shift by jingle, left, left |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Carol Date: 24 Jan 13 - 08:13 PM Left, left, left my wife and 48 kids An old grey mare and a peanut farm Did I do right? right? Right from the country that I came from Hey there, Hi there, shift-by-jingo... (skip during the "shift-by-jingo" to get back on the left foot) Left, left, left my wife and 48 kids.... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 18 Dec 12 - 02:04 AM Left. Left, I left my wife and 48 children At home in the kitchen in starving condition With nothing but gingerbread left, Left, Left, etc. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 18 Nov 12 - 12:23 AM I heard it... I left, I left, I left my wife and twenty-four kids at home in bed with nothing to eat, I left, I left |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,jo Date: 19 Sep 12 - 01:58 AM left, left, I left my wife and my 48 kids in starving condition without any gingerbread. Did I do right, right, right for my country 'tis of thee, woopsidoo and tirolilee |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,guest, Bon Date: 06 May 12 - 12:24 AM Left, left, I had a good job and I left. I left my wife and 15 kids, an old gray mare and a peanut stand. Did I do right, right. Right for my country, hayfoot, strawfoot, skip by jingle. Left, left, I had a good job and I left. etc. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,mark Date: 29 Apr 12 - 06:41 PM I left my wife with 44 kids with nothing to eat but gingerbread left. left. left. left. That's all. You've got it. These cadences are all sad for a reason. |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 19 Mar 12 - 09:12 PM Left, left, I left my wife and 49 kids on the verge of starvation without any gingerbread. did I do right? right? right from the country by jingo! I had a good wife and I left, left, left my wife.... |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST Date: 20 Feb 12 - 06:49 PM hey |
Subject: RE: Marching song/Cadence Count From: GUEST,Paul V. Partington Date: 20 Dec 11 - 04:58 PM I left my wife with 14 kids and on old grey mare in a peanut shell Hay foot, straw foot,belly full of bean soup, Johnny get your clothes on, left |
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